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.

识别特征

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.[citation needed]

分类信息

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.

学名
Pterodroma macroptera
命名信息
(Smith, A, 1840)
Procellariiformes
Procellariidae
Pterodroma

分布与栖息地

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.

繁殖区
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
非繁殖区
subtropical to temperate South Atlantic and South Indian oceans to s African and w Australian waters
迁徙
Complete migrants

行为

The species feeds mostly on squid and to a lesser degree on fish and crustaceans. Prey is generally caught at night, by dipping and surface-seizing. The great-winged petrel will on occasion follow whales and associate with other related bird species to feed. Breeding occurs in the southern winter (beginning in April); nests are either solitary or in small colonies, located in burrows or aboveground among boulders or low vegetation.

保护状况

种群趋势
declining

照片

分布

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