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Sea bird at Cape Byron

To: <>
Subject: Sea bird at Cape Byron
From: "Rex & Jan Fisher" <>
Date: Sun, 12 Mar 2006 15:51:30 +1100

I am wondering if I can get some guidance on the id of a sea bird at Cape Byron (Byron Bay nth NSW) in calm mid morning conditions last Friday 10 March.

 

I first saw a dark bird with broad squared off tail gliding along the cliff face just below the information centre. It was almost raptor like in appearance from above which is why I immediately looked at the tail and noticed that it was square and quite broad in relation to the bird’s size and (from my experience) ruled out a raptor. Unfortunately due to terrain and works to upgrade guard rails I only got a very brief glimpse.

 

However when I walked further down the access road there was a dark bird among the gulls working bait fish schools just off the southern part of the headland. Its wings and body looked thicker/shorter than a shearwater. It was mostly flying close to the water with slow, strong wing beats with occasionally gliding particularly on he face of the swells. Its tail was mostly fanned whilst doing all of that manoeuvring. When feeding it hovered and fluttered feet down just above the water with its wings fairly vertical as its head dipped in to apparently catch small fish which I could see breaking the surface. It was dark above and below with a hint of paler grey colour in the belly/ventral area. From above it was a lighter tannish brown along the back and out along the wings where it met diagonally with a darker area extending to the tips of the wings. From the books the only thing I can match it to is a dark phase White-bellied Storm-Petrel particularly when one looks at the illustrations at the top of page 93 of the 1997 Pizzey & Night which shows the lighter brown meeting diagonally with a dark outer wing and the adjacent illustration shows the paler belly/vent. The feeding behaviour was very similar to that described for the Wilson’s Storm-Petrel in the same book but there was no white band across the tail/rump. Unfortunately at the distance I could not pick up any detail of bill or feet.

 

There are just a few things in some of the guides that have me a bit wary, not the least its appearance so close to the coast although a few days earlier we had experienced several days of extremely strong onshore conditions from a close in low pressure system. One of guides also mentions that the White-bellied holds over the water with horizontal wings when feeding. Are these feeding patterns diagnostic? I would be grateful for any thoughts

 

Regards and thanks, Rex Fisher

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