Why The Name Storm-petrel
It is generally accepted that the name petrel refers to St. Peter because Storm-petrels appear to walk on the water when feeding as seen in the photograph above. This behavior is best observed on very calm seas. And Storm-petrel because the early sailors often saw these little birds just before a storm.

Mother Carey's Chickens
Mother Carey's Chickens is an alternate sailors name for storm petrels. So who is Mother Carey? Mother Carey is a corruption of Mater Cara, one of the epithets of Maria, the mother of Christ, used by the Spanish and Portuguese sailors who were the first westerners in the southern seas.

Identification Challenge
Birders introduced to pelagic birding in our area may be lulled into taking the Storm-petrels for granted since we enjoy an abundance of Wilson's Storm-petrels all summer long with thousands sometimes seen close to shore. Wilson's is the "Storm-petrel to watch" because it readily approaches ships and is attracted by chum. When you are ready to add other Storm-petrel species to your life list, you quickly learn that in general Storm-petrels are difficult to identify and even harder to photograph.

Genera
There of at least 20 species of Storm-petrels, four of which have been identified in our waters and a fifth we are still looking for.  They belong to 4 of the 8 genera of the family Oceanitidae.