Advanced Seabird Sunday ID CHALLENGE 28 June 2020 by Karen Dick
This smallish-sized seabird was seen from an Eaglehawk Pelagic in Tasmania near the Continental Shelf in July. It can be seen in most months of the year. It approached the boat, made a couple of passes and then headed away. A real stunner to see at sea!
Solution:
Well done for your detective skills that got you to White-headed Petrel Pterodroma lessonii. All of you correctly worked out that the chunky bill and tubenose would lead you to a Petrel species.
Once you are at the petrels, the key identification feature here is the entirely dark underwing and white head, which is unlike any other species. The tail is also white and it has a dark smudgy eye. This species has a variable amount of grey on the sides of the neck, especially in fresh plumage (not just in juvenile plumage) but it rarely forms a full collar like a Soft-plumaged Petrel usually shows. In the third photo, you can see the silvery mantle and darker wings with an indistinct M across the back. It is actually quite a large, heavyset petrel with a wingspan slightly longer than 1m.
It breeds in the subantarctic and is generally found in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, visiting southeastern Australia mainly in spring and autumn.
Learn more about this beautiful bird here: https://ebird.org/species/whhpet1?siteLanguage=en_AU
Comments:
Pamela Keil: “Stubby body and bill with tube nose lead me to the Petrels. Flipping through the book looking for white body, dark underwing (though shadow makes it difficult to see if there’s any pattern), a stubby tail, grey head/collar, and black eye mask led me to the page with the Soft-plumaged Petrel… but the grey head pattern didn’t quite seem right. Looking around a bit more on that page, I discovered that White-headed Petrel in fresh plumage has some grey tinged feathers in just this sort of pattern… with the white still showing on the head.
So, I’m going out on a limb and saying it’s a fresh-plumaged White-headed Petrel that will soon lose the grey tinge to the head feathers with wear… I think.”
Betty Nottle: “I am going to go with White Headed as well. The eye is a giveaway, and the shading under the wing matches my book description. Also says they often have faint collaring.”
Jannette Manins: “White-headed Petrel in fresh plumage has a narrow collar but this one’s a bit broader. All white tail matches and under wing pattern is similar, but I’m not sure yet.”
Catarina Gregson: “Checking my ABG and notice that the White-headed Petrel has the same tube nose and the eye pattern, all white underbody and wing pattern look right to me. The White-headed Petrel in fresh plumage with the narrow collar looks the same as the beautiful bird in your photo so that’s what I go for.”
Sue Gadsby Lee: “chunky Petrel type bill. White head with a mask pattern around the eye, grey collar going down to the front of it’s neck…..I think White-headed Petrel”
Women Birders Australia 