Matsudaira's Storm-Petrel
Hydrobates matsudairae
Dark brown, lanky seabird, large and long-billed for a storm-petrel, with long, angular wings Breeds on southern Japanese islands and winters in the tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans. Powerful, slow flight style contrasts with swifter flight of smaller species. Somewhat resembles the larger Bulwer’s Petrel, but Matsudaira’s tail is forked, not wedge-shaped. Bright white shafts of the primary feathers give it an almost skua-like appearance, even from a distance. Swinhoe’s Storm-Petrel similar but smaller, with more graceful flight style. Tristram’s Storm-Petrel also similar but lacks the primary shafts and usually has a more contrasting carpal bar.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Hydrobates matsudairae
- Authority
- (Kuroda, Nm, 1922)
- Order
- Procellariiformes
- Family
- Hydrobatidae
- Genus
- Hydrobates
Range and habitat
- Breeding range
- IO, PO : Kita-Iwojima and Minami-Iwojima (Iwo=Volcano Is., s of Ogasawara=Bonin Is., s of Japan)
- Non-breeding range
- w Micronesia through seas of e Indonesian Arch., nw of Australia to Chagos Arch. (s of Maldives), Arabian Sea, Seychelles, and off e African coast
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Conservation
- Population trend
- unknown
Photos
Distribution
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