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Todd Landers (Auckland Council) and colleagues have looked at the nocturnal behaviour of the ACAP-listed Westland Petrel Procellaria westlandica at its breeding sites in New Zealand.

The abstract of their paper published in the journal Notornis follows:

"There have been few studies on the temporal patterns of social behaviours and how they relate to timing of life history stages in nocturnal colonial bird species.  This study focuses on the threatened Westland petrel (Procellaria westlandica; Procellariidae), to investigate temporal patterns in colonial interactions, including vocalisations and social behaviours, in the context of petrel sociality.  We conducted extensive behavioural observations on the colony at different time-scales (throughout single nights, between seasons, and across years) to characterise the temporal dynamics of at-colony behaviours.  These analyses show consistent temporal variation in several behavioural attributes (e.g., social interactions, vocalisations, eyes closed, body movements), with little or no temporal variation in others (e.g., self maintenance or stationary behaviours).  These data provide the basis for specific predictions to test the role of social interactions between temporally varying vocalisations and social behaviours in nocturnal colonial birds."

Westland Petrel at sea.  Photograph by Barry Baker

Reference:

Landers, T.J., Bannock, C.A. & Hauber, M.E. 2001.  Dynamics of behavioural rhythms in a colonial, nocturnal, burrowing seabird: a comparison across different temporal scales.  Notornis 58: 81-89.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 5 December 2011