European Storm Petrel

The European storm petrel, also called the British storm petrel or simply storm petrel, is a seabird in the northern storm petrel family Hydrobatidae. The small, square-tailed bird is entirely black apart from a broad white rump and a white band on the underwings, and it flies with a fluttering, bat-like flight; most of the population breeds on islands off northern Europe, with the largest numbers in the Faroe Islands, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Iceland, while a separate Mediterranean subspecies breeds chiefly on Filfla Island in Malta, Sicily and the Balearic Islands and cannot be told apart from its Atlantic relatives at sea.