Bird of the Year 2021 is an Azorean “exclusive”

And the winner of Portugal’s vote for Bird of the Year 2021, with 80% of the 1580 votes cast, was… Monteiro’s Storm Petrel! Throughout the year, we’ll celebrate this species and highlight the threats faced by seabirds (the world’s most endangered group of birds) in general and birds that depend on islands in particular.

“This little bird is incredibly resilient: it can live more than 20 years, spending most of it time at sea. We’re talking about a 50gramme bird that weathers the storms that ravage the Atlantic, year after year,” says Azucena de la Cruz Martín, Coordinator of SPEA Açores.

This species only exists in the Azores, and it nests only on small islets near the islands of Graciosa, Flores and possibly Corvo. It is therefore very vulnerable to any threats to these colonies, such as the arrival of mice and other predators which don’t naturally occur on these islets. Among these exotic predators that could put the species at risk is the Madeiran Wall Lizard, which has been observed feeding on Monteiro’s Storm Petrel chicks.

To help protect this species, in 2018 we launched the Internacional Conservation Action Plan for Monteiro’s Storm Petrel. This document, which defines the conservation priorities for the species, was developed with support from several national and international partners. These priority actions, which include habitat restoration, implementing biosecurity plans, assessing the impact of introduced predators and monitoring the species’ populations, are being implemented on Graciosa island in the LIFE IP Azores Natura project, in which SPEA takes part.

This species’ name honours Portuguese biologist Luís Monteiro, who in the 1990s demonstrated that it should be considered a separate species, rather than a variant of the Band-rumped Storm Petrel. The Azores’ smallest seabird, Monteiro’s Storm Petrel is in fact very similar to the Band-rumped Storm Petrel: it is all black, except for the white patch at the base of its tail. Monteiro’s tail is slightly more forked, but only experienced observers can spot that difference.

Another trait of the Bird of the Year 2021 is that it breeds in Summer, whereas the Band-rumped Storm Petrel breeds in winter. Monteiro’s Storm Petrel nests in cavities, often on cliffs which are hard to access without wings, so our technicians are resorting to soud to estimate how many petrels nest in each colony. In the LI

LIFE4BEST Seabirds Macaronesian Sound project, our researchers use the birds’ sounds to determine how many there are, and where. Sound is, in fact, another trait which specialists use to identify this species: Monteiro’s Storm Petrel’s calls have one less syllable than those of its ‘cousin’.

The vote ran from 14th January to 4th February, through an online form where we invited you to chose between Monteiro’s Storm Petrel and Audouin’s Gull to be Bird of the Year.