Great-winged Petrel
Pterodroma macroptera
A medium-sized, bulky dark petrel with a large head and long pointed wings. It often shows a grizzled, gray scaly muzzle around the bill. It flies fast with a flexed wrist and its heavy head angled downward, giving it a characteristic appearance. It breeds on subantarctic islands between the Tristan group and western Australia, dispersing across the southern oceans between 30 and 50°S, where it is a deep ocean specialist. Several species are similar to Great-winged Petrel. Gray-faced Petrel, sometimes considered the same species, breeds off New Zealand and is almost identical except for a more extensive grizzled face patch. The smaller Kerguelen Petrel has a more contrasting silvery underwing. The gadfly petrels mostly have more pale patterning on the underwing or belly and lack the bulkiness of Great-winged Petrel.
Identification
This is a large seabird, with a body length of 42–45 cm. The bird is completely dark brown except for a variable patch of white near the base of the bill, which is black.<p>It is separated from sooty shearwater and short-tailed shearwater by the all-dark underwing, the thick, stubby bill, and different jizz. The similar flesh-footed shearwater has a light, pinkish bill. Petrels in the genus Procellaria are larger and have a less bounding flight.
Taxonomy
This species was formerly treated as containing two subspecies - P. m. macroptera and P. m. gouldi, the latter of which is endemic to New Zealand. As of 2014, the latter is recognized as a species in its own right, the grey-faced petrel (Pterodroma gouldi). In 2016 further research was published supporting the full species status of the grey-faced petrel.
- Scientific name
- Pterodroma macroptera
- Authority
- (Smith, A, 1840)
- Order
- Procellariiformes
- Family
- Procellariidae
- Genus
- Pterodroma
Range and habitat
The great-winged petrel breeds in the Southern Hemisphere between 30 and 50 degrees south with colonies on Tristan da Cunha, Gough Island, the Crozet Islands, the Prince Edward Islands, the Kerguelen Islands and on the coasts of southern Australia. It is a rare vagrant to the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California, United States.
- Breeding range
- SO : subtropical to temperate is. from Tristan da Cunha and Gough (sc Atlantic Ocean) to Kerguelen Is. (se Indian Ocean) and islets off sw Australia
- Non-breeding range
- subtropical to temperate South Atlantic and South Indian oceans to s African and w Australian waters
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Behavior
Migration pattern: Complete migrants.
Conservation
Population trend: declining.
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
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