Ashy Storm-Petrel Call

This is the call of the elusive Ashy Storm-Petrel (Oceanodroma homochroa). Ashy Storm-Petrels nest in burrows and crevices on offshore rocks and islands. To avoid predators, they only arrive and depart their island nests under the cover of darkness. That makes studying them pretty difficult. But scientists have come up with a clever solution: they set up acoustic recorders on islands and offshore rocks to record bird calls. When scientists return, they have an audio record of the ashys that have visited the area. Researchers from the USGS Western Ecological Research Center have deployed acoustic recorders on islands and offshore rocks from Northern California to Mexico. This recording comes from one of those recorders. This work is part of a new range-wide monitoring plan for the species, a collaborative effort amongst scientists to assess the success of ongoing conservation efforts. The data collected by the recorders will be processed with machine learning and will provide a window into the birds’ activity at their rugged nesting sites throughout the summer. Learn more at the Ashy Storm-Petrel Range and Colony Attendance Behavior page.