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title: "4.7 km up and at 170 km/h!  A Streaked Shearwater survives 11 hours in a typhoon"
---

# 4.7 km up and at 170 km/h!  A Streaked Shearwater survives 11 hours in a typhoon

*![typhoon](https://www.acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Shearwaters/Shearwaters/typhoon.jpg)  
Satellite image of the typhoon approaching mainland Japan, 8 September 2019, from the publication.  Provided by the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology*

 Kozue Shiomi ([Frontier Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Sciences](https://www.fris.tohoku.ac.jp/en/), Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan) reports open access in the journal *[Ecology](https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/19399170)*on a rare case that implies the upper limit of a seabird’s capacity to tolerate a storm.  A GPS-equipped Streaked Shearwater *Calonectris leucomelas* ([Near Threatened](http://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/22698172)) was caught in and survived a huge typhoon, showing swirling flight high (up to 4.7 km altitude) at speeds of 80-170 km/h for 11 hours over the mainland of Japan.

 **![Streaked Shearwater](https://www.acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Shearwaters/Shearwaters/Streaked%20Shearwater.jpg)*  
A Streaked Shearwater in its more normal habitat, close to the sea’s surface*

 The paper concludes:

 “The present study appears to demonstrate an example of the behavior of seabirds at the extreme edge between failure and success of survival during a storm.  Further accumulation of such data would contribute toward an understanding of whether and how seabirds manage to survive frequent but irregular weather events.”

 Read a popular account of the shearwater’s ordeal [here](https://newatlas.com/biology/bird-typhoon-ride/).

 **Reference:**

 Shiomi, K. 2023. Swirling flight of a seabird caught in a huge typhoon high over mainland Japan.  *[Ecology](https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ecy.4161)*[104 doi.org/10.1002/ecy.4161](https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ecy.4161).

 *John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 13 February 2024*