Team solves Swinhoe's storm petrel mystery

Chinese researchers find out more about bird's foraging habits

"High above the silvery ocean winds are gathering the storm clouds, and between the clouds and ocean proudly wheels the Stormy Petrel, like a streak of sable lightning."

Many Chinese people know the line from The Song of the Stormy Petrel, by Russian writer Maxim Gorky (1868-1936), because it has been in the textbooks of Chinese junior high school students for many years.

However, few of us have seen a storm petrel with our own eyes — even though it is a group of nearly 30 species of seabirds in two families that are widely distributed around the world, and some of the species, including Swinhoe's storm petrel, live around China's coastal areas.