Procellariiformes
Procellariiformes (from the Latin procella, a storm) is an order of birds formerly called Tubinares and still called tubenoses in English.
They are all highly pelagic seabirds, and all of them have their nostrils enclosed in one or two tubes on their straight, deeply grooved bills with hooked tips. The beaks are made up from several plates. Wings are long and narrow; feet are webbed, and the hind toe is undeveloped or non-existent. Plumage is predominantly black or gray.
Short-tailed Albatross
showing tubenose structure
The tubes may be used to smell, to spread stomach oil, or to excrete salt when these birds drink salt water.
The longer-winged species fly using a switchback technique to minimise active flapping. All eat fish, squid or similar marine prey.
Most are almost unable to walk on land, and many species visit their remote breeding islands only at night. The exceptions are the huge albatrosses, and the fulmars. The latter can disable even large predatory birds with their obnoxious stomach oil, which they can project some distance.
There are a total of 93 species of Procellariiformes world-wide, divided among four families:
Procellariiformes are most closely related to Sphenisciformes (Penguins).
In the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy, the tubenoses are included in a greatly enlarged order Ciconiiformes.
Referenced By
Albatross | Aves | Avian | Avifauna | Balearic Shearwater | Bird | Bird migration | Birds | Black-browed Albatross | Black-capped Petrel | Bulwer's Petrel | Cory's Shearwater | Corys Shearwater | Coryâs Shearwater | Diabolin | Diomedea exulans | Diomedeidae | Diving petrel | European Storm-Petrel | European birds | Extinct birds | Fea's Petrel | Fulmar | Gadfly petrel | Great Shearwater | Greater Shearwater | Grebe | Jamaica Petrel | Leach's Petrel | Leach's Storm-Petrel | List of British birds: Non-passerines | List of European birds | List of North American birds: non-passerines | List of biological orders | List of birds | List of birds on Wikipedia | Little Shearwater | Madeira Petrel | Manx Shearwater | Mediterranean Shearwater | Mother Carey's Chicken | New Zealand Storm-Petrel | North American birds | Northern Fulmar | Nostril | Nostrils | Pelagodroma | Podicepidae | Prion (bird) | Procellariidae | Seabird | Shearwater | Sooty Shearwater | Southern Fulmar | Storm-Petrel | Storm petrel | Swinhoe's Petrel | Swinhoe's Storm-Petrel | Thallasarche melanophris | Wandering Albatross | White-faced Storm-Petrel | Wilson's Petrel | Wilson's Storm-Petrel | Zino's Petrel
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