Band-rumped Storm-Petrel

About the Band-rumped Storm-Petrel

The Band-rumped Storm-Petrel is a bird of the open ocean, a dark swallow-sized seabird with a white band across the rump that spends almost its entire life out of sight of land. It flutters and glides low over the swells, pattering its feet on the surface as it picks up plankton and tiny fish, a behavior old sailors thought looked like walking on water.

These storm-petrels nest in burrows on remote Atlantic islands like the Azores and Madeira, then wander widely at sea. In late summer, warm deep water off the Texas coast brings small numbers into the Gulf, where only dedicated pelagic birding trips ever encounter them.

These photographs were taken on a pelagic trip out of Port Aransas on September 12, 2025, far offshore in the deep blue Gulf, on the same memorable boat ride that produced the White-tailed Tropicbird.