* Wilson’s Storm-Petrel  Oceanites oceanicus

Texas Coastal / Offshore Status: One bird photographed off Port O’Connor on June 11, 2015 by Petra Hockey. Previously on the Hypothetical list for Texas. Eight other previous sight records were undocumented. 

Gulf of Mexico Status: Offshore Louisiana Fairly Common off the Mississippi Delta May to August.

Link to page with photos of Petra Hockey’s Wilson’s Storm-Petrel.

Habitat: Widespread in the world’s oceans. Some authorities consider it the world’s most abundant seabird.  Certainly, it is the most abundant pelagic bird in the north Atlantic for much of the warmer months (Apr into Oct), even though it nests at islands in the far southern oceans. 

* Texas Review Species, requiring written or photographic documentation to TBRC. 

Seasonal Occurrence Graph

Texas Pelagics Sightings Distribution 

Map 1) The live Google map above shows the geographic distribution of Wilson’s 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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