After an eight-year quest, scientists have finally found the nesting site of the elusive white-vented storm petrel.
Dusk has fallen deep in a desert drier than the Sahara, and four researchers are blasting the calls of a tiny seabird into the night. They’ve come to this seemingly barren and empty place to find one of the most mysterious seabirds on Earth.
The scientists are waiting near a mist net, hoping for a small miracle. Then … the flutter of wings. Closer inspection reveals a little black bird with a white belly caught high in their net—drawn in by the calls of its own kind. A band of white feathers curves across its rump like a smile. Gently, they take it out of the net to confirm what they are holding: a white-vented storm petrel, 75 kilometers inland in Chile’s Atacama Desert.
Scouring the Desert for a Seabird | Hakai Magazine
Dusk has fallen deep in a desert drier than the Sahara, and four researchers are blasting the calls of a tiny seabird into the night. They’ve come to this seemingly barren and empty place to find one of the most mysterious seabirds on Earth.
The scientists are waiting near a mist net, hoping for a small miracle. Then … the flutter of wings. Closer inspection reveals a little black bird with a white belly caught high in their net—drawn in by the calls of its own kind. A band of white feathers curves across its rump like a smile. Gently, they take it out of the net to confirm what they are holding: a white-vented storm petrel, 75 kilometers inland in Chile’s Atacama Desert.
Scouring the Desert for a Seabird | Hakai Magazine