I reckon Inger Vandykes photos from Newcastle are White-necked, (bill size,
tail shape and under-primary pattern). I also would agree that the photo by
Alan McBride off Sydney in the Photographic Index, 'Seabirds of Australia,
ventral view is a White-necked not Vanuatu but consider that the dorsal view
by Peter Harper therein is neither. More likely it is a Cook's Petrel!
Looking at these shots and my photo library, White-necks in Australia appear
to have a considerable amount of black on under-primaries, much larger in
area and more uniformly dark than shown in Onley & Scofield (O & S) for this
species and typically more than illustrated in HANZAB (which is better) but
NOT extending to whole area as shown in O & S for Vanuatu Petrel. Pattern in
White-necked often appears like that of juvenile Shy Albatross where a panel
of white embracing only some inner primaries extends into the dark tip not
present in Salvin's Albatross. So I expect there is a difference between
these species similar to that in Shy/Salvin's, real but subtle. And if they
don't have the relatively well known White-necked illustration right I
suppose I shouldn't have the confidence I've shown for Onley having it right
for the hardly known Vanuatu Petrel. My view is that it is a White-necked
unless proved otherwise as we do with Tahiti & Beck's Petrels. Making such
an assumption may very occasionally be wrong but doesn't change our
comprehension of status.
Mike Carter
30 Canadian Bay Road
Mount Eliza VIC 3930
Tel (03) 9787 7136
From: "Tom Tarrant" <>
To: "birding-aus" <>
Hi Greg, Tony and all interested pelagic Birding-Ausers,
This is certainly an interesting thread just commenced, (....what an earth
were the birds that I saw over the last 20 years on SE Queensland
pelagics!)
If anyone has any useful publications (on or offline) that deal with this
issue I would l love to see them.
There are some images of the 'suspect' birds on
http://www.aviceda.org/abid/birdimages.php?action=birdspecies&fid=56&bid=686
and some awful video here
http://video.google.com.au/videoplay?docid=189871910922049629
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