Chatham Islands Petrel
Pterodroma axillaris
Gadfly petrel of medium size. Dark gray upperparts and white below with a diagonal black bar from the edge of the wing to the black base of the underwing. Has a black bill, a dark eye-patch, and pink legs and feet. Breeds only on the Chatham Islands, but can forage up 3000 km offshore. Migrates to deep waters off the South American coast. Distinguished from Black-winged Petrel by the reduced black bar on the underwing; Mottled Petrel is similar but larger, with a dark belly, lacking the diagonal bar on the wing.
Identification
The Chatham petrel is a medium-sized petrel with a mottled dark-grey and white forehead, dark grey back and upper wings, and white underparts. A black diagonal bar extends from the leading edge of underwing to a black ‘armpit’. The shoulders and upper-wing coverts are a deeper grey giving a dark M pattern across the spread upper wings. <p>The bill is black and strongly hooked tip. The eye is dark, and the legs and feet are pink, with dark outer toes and webs. The sexes are alike. <p>Chatham petrels are rarely observed away from the colony; the few at-sea records are from ships in oceanic waters.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Pterodroma axillaris
- Authority
- (Salvin, 1893)
- Order
- Procellariiformes
- Family
- Procellariidae
- Genus
- Pterodroma
Range and habitat
This species breeds only in the Chatham Islands.
- Breeding range
- PO : South East I. (=Rangatira, Chatham Is., e of South I., New Zealand)
- Non-breeding range
- to Nazca Ridge w of Peru and Chile (c South Pacific Ocean)
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Conservation
- Population trend
- rising
Photos
Distribution
Other Birds
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African Barred Owlet
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Balsas Screech-Owl
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Medium-sized owl (but large for a screech-owl) with short ear tufts and brownish (not yellow) eyes. Fairly common in scrubby woodland, thorn forest, and edge of interior southwest Mexico where it is endemic. Sometimes seen hunting beside quiet roads. Usually detected by its gruff, bouncing ball song. Mottled Owl occurs in same areas but is slightly larger, with a rounded head and thicker dark streaks below.
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