Sabine's gull steals eggs from nesting colonies of Arctic terns. The Sabine's gull is a small gull, in length and weighing . The wings are long, thin and pointed with a span of between . The bill, which is black with a yellow tip, is around long. This species is easy to identify through its striking wing pattern. The adult has a pale grey back and wing coverts, black primary flight feathers and white secondaries. The white tail is forked. The male's hood darkens during breeding season. Young birds have a similar tricoloured wing pattern, but the grey is replaced by brown,
Fork-tailed storm petrel habitat varies, ranging from bare rock to forests. They typically build their nests under rock crevices or roots, or burrow into soft ground with low growing vegetation. As it frequents the open ocean, little is known about the fork-tailed storm petrel outside of the breeding season. They have been frequently sighted off the Californian coast, making them the most northerly distributed storm petrel during the winter. Sparse sightings also indicate that they forage as far south as Hawaii. Fork-tailed storm petrels are generally silent and only call when entering their breeding colony at night. Their most common call is a