Petrel Facts: 26 Wild Truths About the Bird Behind the App
The petrel is a small gray seabird with an outsized life: it rides storms, sleeps mid-flight, and crosses oceans on instinct. Here are 26 reasons we named a travel app after it.
Named for a saint who walked on waterStorm petrels patter their tiny feet across the surface as they feed, like they are walking on the sea. The name "petrel" most likely honors St. Peter, who did the same in the famous story.
The original flight alertSailors treated petrels as storm warnings. When the birds appeared close around a ship, rough weather was on its way, and crews took the hint.
Ocean crossings with no mapPetrels cross entire oceans and then return to the same burrow on the same shore, year after year. No map, no landmarks, no wrong turns.
Years at sea without touching landA young petrel can leave the nest and stay out over the ocean for years before its feet touch land again.
They sleep on the wingPetrels can rest while flying over open water, far from any perch. Sleep happens between wingbeats.
They drink seawaterA special tube on the beak filters salt out of seawater and excretes it, which is why petrels and their relatives are called tubenoses. Built-in desalination, no plumbing required.
Smallest seabirds, biggest oceansStorm petrels are among the smallest seabirds on earth, and they spend their lives crossing the biggest oceans anyway.
Millions of miles in one lifetimeOver a lifetime, some petrels and their shearwater cousins rack up millions of miles of flight. Frequent flyer status: permanent.
Named after the storm itselfTheir scientific order, Procellariiformes, comes from the Latin procella, a violent gale. The whole family is literally named for the weather it rides.
From sparrow-sized to 2-meter wingspansPetrels range from storm petrels not much bigger than a sparrow to giant petrels with wingspans around two meters, over six feet tip to tip.
Decades of homecomingsMany petrels live 30 years or more, and most of those years end the same way: back at the same nesting site they have always known.
Home by pure instinctA petrel finds its way home across thousands of miles of open, featureless water on instinct alone. The way home is simply in the bird.
A nose for the way homePetrels have an unusually sharp sense of smell for a bird. In a crowded colony of look-alike burrows, in the dark, they can pick out their own nest by scent alone. Researchers have watched them do it.
They brew their own fuelPetrels convert their catch into a concentrated, energy-rich oil stored in the stomach. It powers the adult through long crossings and feeds the chick between trips. Packing light, perfected.
One egg, one chancePetrels lay a single egg each season, and if it is lost they rarely lay another. The whole year comes down to one egg, one chick, one shot at getting it home.
Home in the darkMany petrels return to their island colonies only after dark, slipping into their burrows at night where gulls and other predators cannot see them. On bright moonlit nights, some wait offshore until the sky dims.
Built-in tube nosesPetrels belong to a group called tubenoses: their nostrils run through raised tubes along the top of the bill. That unusually sharp sense of smell helps them find food across open ocean.
They cry out the saltA special gland above a petrel’s eyes pulls the salt out of the seawater it drinks and drips the concentrated brine off the tip of its bill, so it never needs fresh water.
Riding the wind for freePetrels barely flap. They lock their wings and ride the gradient of wind speed just above the waves, gliding for hours and crossing whole oceans on almost no energy.
Masters at sea, clumsy on landA petrel’s legs sit so far back on its body that many can barely walk. On land they shuffle or belly-flop toward their burrows, but at sea they are among the most graceful fliers alive.
The same mate, years apartMany petrels keep the same partner for years. They spend months alone at sea and reunite at the very same burrow each season to raise the next chick together.
A chick bigger than its parentsFed on rich stomach oil, a petrel chick can grow heavier than the adults. Then the parents leave, the chick slims down, and it flies out to the open ocean alone on its very first flight.
Nesting where almost nothing livesSnow petrels raise their chicks deep in the Antarctic interior, sometimes hundreds of miles from open water, farther inland than nearly any other bird on Earth.
They smell a feeding frenzyPetrels can detect the faint chemical that rises from the sea where plankton are abundant, and follow that scent across the water to find where the food is.
They fly underwaterDiving petrels chase prey below the surface, beating their wings to swim through the water in almost exactly the way they fly through the air.
Seven weeks in the eggA petrel’s single egg is incubated for about seven weeks, one of the longer incubation times of any bird, with both parents taking turns fasting on the nest to keep it warm.
Why a travel app is named after this bird
A creature that crosses the world and always finds its way home is a pretty good mascot for a trip that plans itself. That is the whole idea behind Petrel: forward your booking confirmations and the itinerary finds its own way, day by day, with flights, stays, and reservations in order. Read the full story on the Why Petrel page.
The tagline: Let the petrel guide you.
Make this trip plan yours
Forward your real booking confirmations to Petrel and it builds this exact day-by-day view for you: flights, hotels, reservations, live flight status, and the travel time between stops. Under a minute.