7 October 2025
We think of hurricanes as very dangerous and very devastating but there’s a pigeon-sized seabird, the Desertas petrel (Pterodroma deserta), who nests during hurricane season because it chases hurricanes to feed its chick.
High on a rocky plateau [on Bugio Island], one small nocturnal seabird is nestled in its burrow, where far below waves lap gently against the cliffs. In the blackness of night, it senses a storm brewing 1,000 miles (1609km) from the coast of Morocco.
— BBC: Riders on the storm: The birds that fly into hurricanes
Bugio Island is well situated for chasing hurricanes, all of which are born as tropical depressions off the coast of Africa, travel west to the Americas, then swing north.
When scientists put data trackers on Desertas petrels and tracked them for five years, 2015-2019, they found:
Desertas petrels make some of the longest foraging trips ever recorded in any species – traveling as far as 12,000km (7,460 miles) over deep, pelagic waters – all the way from Africa, to the New England coast and back again.
— BBC: Riders on the storm: The birds that fly into hurricanes
Unlike most seabirds who circumnavigate hurricanes or try to stay inside the eye of the storm, the Desertas petrel actively chases hurricanes, braves incredible winds, and captures food churned to the ocean’s surface in the wake of the hurricane.
They put themselves exactly in the right place at the right time to be run over by a hurricane.
BBC: Riders on the storm: The birds that fly into hurricanes. Quote from Francesco Ventura, Woods Hole.
Both parents forage, partially digest the food adding stomach oil, then regurgitate it into the chick’s mouth when they reach the burrow.
Chances are good that Desertas petrels were out there in the North Atlantic foraging in the wake of Imelda and Humberto last week.
Unfortunately this amazing seabird is Vulnerable to extinction. There are only 200 breeding pairs in the world.