Tubenosed seabirds nest on islands and invent long faithfulness
Procellariiformes—albatrosses, petrels, shearwaters, and storm petrels—are “tubenoses” named for bony nostrils. Colonial breeders on remote predator-free islands, larger species nest on the surface while smaller ones dig burrows, returning to natal colonies and even the same sites year after year.
The order Procellariiformes gathers four seabird families: albatrosses, a combined petrel-and-shearwater family, and two separate storm-petrel lineages. Once called Tubinares and still known in English as tubenoses, they are named for the bony tubular nostrils, or naricorns, that set them apart from other birds. The German anatomist Max Furbringer coined the order's name in 1888 from the Latin procella, a violent storm. Petrel, first spelled that way in 1602, probably refers to the storm petrel pattering its feet across the water; William Dampier linked it to Saint Peter walking on the sea, though that connection is later speculation.
These birds feed almost entirely in the open ocean and range across every sea, with their greatest diversity around New Zealand. They breed in colonies, mostly on remote islands free of predators. Large species nest on the ground, while most smaller ones use natural cavities or burrows. They are strongly philopatric, returning to the colony where they hatched and reusing the same nest site for years.
Pairs are monogamous, and bonds formed over several seasons can last a lifetime. Each nesting attempt produces a single egg, usually once a year, though the bigger albatrosses may breed only every other year. Both parents incubate and feed the chick, and incubation and fledging take longer than in most birds, but once a chick fledges, parental care stops. Lifespans run to decades: Wisdom, the oldest known wild bird, is about 75.
People have long eaten these birds, some are still hunted, and albatrosses in particular feature widely in culture. The order includes some of the world's most endangered birds, threatened by predators introduced to breeding islands, marine pollution and fisheries bycatch. International concern produced a binding 2001 treaty, the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, known as ACAP. Naming has shifted over time, and an early landmark study was Frederick DuCane Godman's Monograph of the Petrels, published between 1907 and 1910.
Source: Procellariiformes
