Band-rumped Storm-Petrel  Hydrobates castro

Texas Coastal / Offshore Status: Fairly common to Common in offshore Texas waters from spring through fall. Usually more numerous in June and July. One inland record at Edinburg, 25 June 1954.

Habitat: Pacific and Atlantic warm-water species. Atlantic Ocean population moves into the deepwaters of the Gulf of Mexico in summer. This species is occasionally seen in the relatively shallow waters over the continental shelf. Band-rumps have also been driven inland by tropical storms.

Similar Species: Very similar to the much rarer Leach’s Storm-Petrel, but has notable differences in flight style (see Leach’s Storm-Petrel account). Band-rumped Storm-Petrels have steady wingbeats, and resemble small, dark, white-rumped shearwaters. Compared to Leach’s, Band-rumps have a whiter rump and more squared tails.

* Texas Review Species, requiring written or photographic documentation to TBRC.
(1) TOS Handbook of Texas Birds; by Mark W. Lockwood and Brush Freeman (2005)
(2) Lower Texas Coast Status from Brad McKinney’s annotated checklist (updated 2009).

Seasonal Occurrence Graph

Texas Pelagics Sightings Distribution 

Map 1) The live Google map above shows the geographic distribution of Band-rumped Storm-Petrel found in Offshore Texas from lat-long data I’ve captured from 35 years of Texas Pelagics. 
Click on the box in the upper left of the map to view the map legend.
Click on each sighting symbol and the data label will appear showing the time, date and the number of birds seen.
Click on the symbol on the top right of the map to view a larger map.

The next two map images are copied from eBird.

Map 2) The map below is zoomed into Texas and Louisiana to show individual locations.

Map 3) The bottom map is zoomed out to show the GOM, the northern Caribbean Sea and the adjacent western tropical Atlantic ocean. 

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