Six captures of a dark‐rumped, fork‐tailed storm‐petrel in the northeastern Atlantic

Abstract

We report here the occurrence of at least six records since 1983 of dark‐rumped and fork‐tailed Storm‐petrels. The first one was attributed to the Swinhoe's Storm‐petrel Oceanodroma monorhis , a subspecies or a close relative of Leach's Storm‐petrel O. leucorhoa , breeding in Japan. As it seemed unlikely that six birds from Japan would appear in the northeastern Atlantic nearly simultaneously, a closer examination of measurements and calls was performed. However, after a careful study of systematics within the Leach's Storm‐petrel complex, it is concluded that the European birds are inseparable from monorhis , and it is suggested that a yet undiscovered colony may exist in the North Atlantic.