Swinhoe's Storm Petrel off Madeira

For the first time a Swinhoe's Storm Petrel Oceanodroma monorhis was properly documented at sea in Portugal waters. These sighting occurred during the 2nd day, of the 3rd commercial Zino's Petrel Pelagic Expedition on June 3, 2010 off Madeira waters.

The bird was first pointed by Bob Flood, while Catarina Fagundes was filming it and Hugo Romano was moving Oceanodroma along the chum slick to get it closer to the chum block. It stood for a few seconds and went away. Minutes later, after drifting some meters again, it was pointed by Hugo and stood flying around the chum block for roughly 45 minutes. The bird was feeding among the European Storm Petrel Hydrobates pelagicus(maximum count of c.30 birds at a given time).

Swinhoe's Storm Petrel was seen previously in the last 3 years in Madeira sea for 2 times by Catarina Fagundes, Hadoram Shirihai and Hugo Romano.

Photography will be posted soon online at Madeira Birds and more video will be presented at North Atlantic seabirds DVD by Bob Flood. Later in the year an article will be published covering detailed photography, location, previous records and identification by Hugo Romano, Catarina Fagundes and Bob Flood.


For the first time a Swinhoe's Storm Petrel Oceanodroma monorhis was properly documented at sea in Portugal waters. These sighting occurred during the 2nd day, of the 3rd commercial Zino's Petrel Pelagic Expedition on June 3, 2010 off Madeira waters.

The bird was first pointed by Bob Flood, while Catarina Fagundes was filming it and Hugo Romano was moving Oceanodroma along the chum slick to get it closer to the chum block. It stood for a few seconds and went away. Minutes later, after drifting some meters again, it was pointed by Hugo and stood flying around the chum block for roughly 45 minutes. The bird was feeding among the European Storm Petrel Hydrobates pelagicus(maximum count of c.30 birds at a given time).

Swinhoe's Storm Petrel was seen previously in the last 3 years in Madeira sea for 2 times by Catarina Fagundes, Hadoram Shirihai and Hugo Romano.

Photography will be posted soon online at Madeira Birds and more video will be presented at North Atlantic seabirds DVD by Bob Flood. Later in the year an article will be published covering detailed photography, location, previous records and identification by Hugo Romano, Catarina Fagundes and Bob Flood.