By ABA Young Birder, Elias Markee-Ratner
It’s morning on the open ocean, and the cloudy sky casts a silvery sheen over the water. I’m on a boat over McMaster Canyon—an undersea gorge 80 or so miles off Long Island, New York—with 50 other anxious birders, all scanning the ocean in the hopes of catching a glimpse of one of the Atlantic’s unique seabirds.
Suddenly, I hear a jumbled shout off the starboard bow and instinctively run across the boat with everyone else, piecing together the words as I go: White. Faced. Storm. Petrel. After a panicked few seconds, I’m on it: a small gray bird pogo-sticking across the water on open wings. Hands shaking, I raise my binoculars to admire the creature, feeling the thrill of an amazing lifer. Trying desperately to steady my hands, I raise my camera as the bird bounces closer and closer to the bow of the boat. The encounter lasts minutes—a miraculous feat for pelagic birding—before the petrel deftly picks up its pace and vanishes off the port bow, leaving everyone aboard awestruck.
This was my first encounter with a White-faced Storm-Petrel (Pelagodroma marina), a bizarre pelagic sprite that can easily send a crowd of seabirders into a state of panicked excitement. It’s found in just about all the world’s oceans. But, despite this expansive range, spotting one in the ABA area is not an easy feat; it requires a trip out to—or beyond—the edge of the continental shelf off the northeastern United States or Atlantic Canada during a limited, late-summer window. Even then, there is no guarantee that one will encounter this lovable oddity.
A Bird Like No Other
Although the rarity of the White-faced Storm-Petrel is enough to make it a prized bird on any avid ABA Area birder’s list, its uniqueness and, let’s be honest, strangeness heightens the thrill of laying eyes on one. Quite simply, there is no other bird like it—in fact, it has its own single-species genus, pelagodroma (which is objectively a great name). Even within its family, the White-faced Storm-Petrel stands out: while most storm-petrels are primarily dark brown, this bird is predominantly medium to light silvery gray, with a mainly white face and gleaming white underparts as well as a gray-brown back; a black cap, eye patch, flight feathers, and tail; and super long legs (complete with yellow webbing between the toes) that exceed even those of the much more common Wilson’s Storm-Petrel. It’s true that it does share some classic features with the other storm-petrels, such as its small size, light secondaries, and pale gray rump, but that is where the similarities end.
And the visual differences are just the start: the White-faced Storm-Petrel also has a singular and truly remarkable form of locomotion, which has inspired many nicknames and has brought this bird true pelagic stardom. Instead of flying by gliding or flapping its wings, White-faced Storm-Petrels put their long legs to use by bouncing across the water’s surface, holding their wings aloft as they kick their feet forward and then backward, smacking the water to propel themselves ahead at impressive speeds. Out on the vast, harsh ocean, such a small bird eking out a living by hopping across the water like a kangaroo is an impressive feat—and also, apparently, an effective one: with a global population of four million birds and a range that spans much of the world’s oceans, these sea kangaroos must be doing something right.
Life History
Like most seabirds, not too much is known about White-faced Storm-Petrels thanks largely to the remoteness and harsh nature of their watery dwellings. What we do know is that, in keeping with seabird custom, they are truly oceanic, spending just about all of the year far from the sight of land. The only exception is when they journey back to their colonies—typically on predator-free islands—to raise a single chick, nestled in the safety of a burrow. At sea, their diet consists of small ocean organisms such as plankton, fish, squid, and sea-skaters (tiny pelagic insects that seem to defy nature much like the storm-petrels).
Although we don’t know for certain, the birds we see every summer off the East Coast are generally considered to be members of the eadesorum subspecies, which nests in Cape Verde from October to June. This timing corresponds well with sightings off the Northeast taking place primarily from July to September, which presumably occur during the birds’ non-breeding season. Unfortunately, despite the large global population, the breeding population of Cape Verde is small, with an estimated 5000–10,000 breeding pairs, and has suffered declines from human pressures. With so few birds flying over the vast expanse of the open ocean, it’s no wonder that White-faced Storm-Petrels are so difficult to track down.
In the Northeast
With huge spans of water to cover and a limited number of individuals to find, spotting a White-faced Storm-Petrel in North America is often far from easy. Still, booking the right pelagic trip in the right place at the right time of year can give seabird enthusiasts a decent chance of crossing paths with one of these pelagic marvels.
White-faced Storm-Petrels occur in the ABA area during a brief window: the pelagic trips that most reliably find this species tend to take place during August, although venturers on July and September trips might get lucky as well. Beyond timing, it’s crucial to get the location right; while White-faced Storm-Petrels are readily found in deep offshore waters from Nova Scotia to the Mid-Atlantic, the best odds of spotting one probably lie somewhere in the middle of this range, with perhaps the most reliable pelagic trips leaving out of Massachusetts. In fact, birders on one 48-hour trip managed to find a staggering 631 individuals (including 589 in just a few hours), shattering the previous ABA area single-day high count, which numbered in the 30s—a prime example of how dynamic and mysterious the ocean is, and a demonstration of why spots on these Massachusetts pelagic trips are so coveted among birders. Nonetheless, encountering one of these unique stormies requires luck, and even more luck if you hope to secure a good view as it sails above the waves.
Still, luck will only get you so far. Seeing one can require careful scanning for hours on end. Besides simply watching the water, checking large flocks of storm-petrels is also a great way to pick out something less common, although most encounters seem to come out of the blue. It’s worth noting that these birds are hard to spot, and their coloration can match surprisingly well with the water on a cloudy day.
While I can’t speak for all trips everywhere, pelagics that leave out of New York tend to have the most success near the continental shelf edge, around New York’s undersea canyons, although there are certainly exceptions to this rule. The best way to increase the odds is to increase the number of eyes looking for the bird; every pelagic leader on every trip I’ve been on has stressed this point and, even if it seems obvious or unhelpful, it’s truly the best advice one can offer. Pelagic trips are unpredictable and the best you can do is look. But if all goes well—if you happen to book a trip in the right place at the right time, and if you have some luck—you might just find yourself marveling at a strange bird that bounced all the way from Africa just to cross paths with a group of delighted birders.
Elias Markee-Ratner is a 15-year-old birder from New York City. He enjoys going birding whenever and wherever possible, and is especially interested in seabirds and in witnessing visual migration. While birds are his greatest passion, he appreciates all forms of nature, particularly cetaceans and other marine life, and loves drawing and painting what he sees in the wild. Recently, he was awarded the title of 2025 ABA Young Birder of the Year (14-18 age category).
