This is Bird Note.

The white-vinted storm petrol is a small black and white seabird found off the coast of Chile

and Peru.

Stormpetrols spend their entire lives at sea, except when nesting.

They pluck small fish and zoo plankton from the water with their beaks, appearing to dance

on the ocean as they pat her their feet on the water to stay just above the surface.

Their species of stormpetrols nest in rock crevices or burrows, which they visit only

after dark.

But scientists had long been mystified about just where white-vinted stormpetrols nest.

A search lasting eight years led them to a site 50 miles inland from the Chilean coastline

and one of the world's driest regions.

The Atacama Desert, a place often compared to the surface of Mars.

They employed dogs specially trained to sniff out seabirds.

The dogs helped locate 14 white-vinted stormpetrol nests tucked into mineral deposits deep

in the desert.

The hard-won knowledge of this elusive stormpetrols nesting habitat will aid in conservation work

to protect this little-known bird.

For Bird Note, I'm Ariana Rimmel.

That for Bird Note is provided by the Bamford Foundation and generous listeners around the

world.