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After something of a dry spell for new Poyser titles, a flurry of recent publications – including The Storm-petrels – has shown that the series is still capable of delivering the very best of species and family monographs. The author, Rob Thomas, now a senior lecturer in Zoology at Cardiff University, has apparently been hooked on storm-petrels since first encountering them on Fair Isle as a 16-year-old, and a combination of his enthusiasm for the subject matter and his skills as a communicator make this book memorable.

The book covers all 28(ish) of the world’s storm-petrel species (the unstable taxonomy of the storm-petrels is testament to the difficulties of studying nocturnal seabirds that breed on remote islands, and that’s before you throw in the curveball of cryptic species) – but the European Storm-petrel Hydrobates pelagicus, the most widely distributed storm-petrel of the north-east Atlantic, is the main subject. Indeed, it is that species that will be most familiar to the majority of BB readers – many keen birders may well have seen two or three other species in European waters but encounters with other species on the breeding grounds are more challenging. Hence, in the first ten chapters of the book, which cover a broad range of aspects of storm-petrel biology and ecology, most of the research relates to the European Storm-petrel. 

Two introductory chapters cover the basics of what a storm-petrel is, including evolutionary history and the current treatment of two storm-petrel families, the northern-hemisphere Hydrobatidae and the southern-hemisphere Oceanitidae. Subsequent chapters deal with the challenges of survival at sea; diet and foraging behaviour; the storm-petrel’s sensory world; the results from tracking; communication and mate choice; breeding biology; predators, parasites and pathogens; and conservation. For most readers, even those of us who think that they know ‘stormies’ reasonably well, there is a wealth of new information here, well researched (and referenced) and with a notable clarity of presentation. 

Chapters 11 and 12, which together make up almost a third of the book, present a summary of each species in the southern and northern storm-petrel families respectively. These accounts cover nomenclature and synonyms, conservation status, range, geographical variation, breeding biology, diet and foraging behaviour, voice and conservation threats. There are decent photographs of most species and again the text is well referenced. This section is a really good summary of current knowledge, while acknowledging that ongoing work may add significantly to it.

The last two chapters of the book cover storm-petrels in human culture (which is an eclectic meander from ‘who was Mother Carey?’ to storm-petrel candles, and much more in between) and ‘encounters with storm-petrels’, which highlights some of the places where storm-petrels can be most easily observed in the northeast Atlantic, both on land and at sea.

Storm-petrels are remarkable birds in so many ways: diminutive, long-lived inhabitants of some of the toughest environments on the planet, with crazy songs and an addictive perfume. Generations of bird observatory wardens have admired the magical ability of a storm-petrel in the hand to convert youngsters into budding ornithologists and environmentalists. We have been waiting for a decent monograph on the storm-petrels for a long time; Rob Thomas, one of those converts, has certainly delivered the goods.

Roger Riddington