NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Townsend's Storm Petrel
Hydrobates socorroensis (C. H. Townsend, 1890)
Source-backed taxonomic record
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Townsend's storm petrel (Hydrobates socorroensis) near California, USA. Photo by Adam Jackson. Original iNaturalist observation here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/239292174
Adam Jackson · CC0 · Image sourceProvider-generated thumbnail requested at 800 pixels; no local editing Local WebP display rendition; resized without cropping.
Open encyclopedia reference
Townsend's storm petrel (Hydrobates socorroensis) is a species of seabird in the family Hydrobatidae. It breeds in the summer on rocks and islets of Guadalupe Island off the western coast of Mexico. It ranges in the Eastern Pacific Ocean north to southern California in the United States and south to 10°N latitude. It used to be considered a subspecies of the Leach's storm petrel. It was formerly defined in the genus Oceanodroma before that genus was synonymized with Hydrobates.
Wikipedia contributors, Townsend's storm petrel; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T10:23:27.296640+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Hydrobates socorroensis (C. H. Townsend, 1890)
- Name authority
- (C. H. Townsend, 1890)
- Common name
- Townsend's Storm Petrel
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Procellariiformes
- Family
- Hydrobatidae
- Genus
- Hydrobates
- Extinction status
- Recorded extant
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classAves
- orderProcellariiformes
- familyHydrobatidae Mathews, 1912
- genusHydrobates F. Boie, 1822
- speciesHydrobates socorroensis (C. H. Townsend, 1890)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Hydrobates. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| European Storm PetrelHydrobates pelagicus (Linnaeus, 1758) | HydrobatidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Fork-tailed Storm PetrelHydrobates furcatus (J. F. Gmelin, 1789) | HydrobatidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Leach's Storm PetrelHydrobates leucorhous (Vieillot, 1818) | HydrobatidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Ainley's Storm PetrelHydrobates cheimomnestes (Ainley, 1980) | HydrobatidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Ringed Storm PetrelHydrobates hornbyi (G. R. Gray, 1854) | HydrobatidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Swinhoe's Storm PetrelHydrobates monorhis (Swinhoe, 1867) | HydrobatidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Ashy Storm PetrelHydrobates homochroa (Coues, 1864) | HydrobatidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Band-rumped Storm PetrelHydrobates castro (Harcourt, 1851) | HydrobatidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Monteiro's Storm PetrelHydrobates monteiroi (Bolton, A. L. Smith, Gómez-Díaz, Friesen, Medeiros, Bried, Roscales & Furness, 2008) | HydrobatidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Cape Verde Storm PetrelHydrobates jabejabe (Barboza du Bocage, 1875) | HydrobatidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Wedge-rumped Storm PetrelHydrobates tethys (Bonaparte, 1852) | HydrobatidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Black Storm PetrelHydrobates melania (Bonaparte, 1854) | HydrobatidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Oceanodroma socorroensis C. H. Townsend, 1890 C. H. Townsend, 1890 | synonym |
| Hydrobates leucorhous socorroensis (C. H. Townsend, 1890) (C. H. Townsend, 1890) | synonym |
| Oceanodroma leucorhoa socorroensis C. H. Townsend, 1890 C. H. Townsend, 1890 | synonym |
Documented distribution
Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=1255031 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:D5KFD. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.