G'day,
With regard to the recent wader and seabird photos I have no problem with Jeff
- "Great Knot", and Rohan and Jeff - "White-headed Petrel". But I would like to
question their comments regarding the tail feathers (and the undertail feathers
are those visible in the photo) of Soft-plumaged Petrel.
(Rohan has said "Soft-plumaged Petrel can be ruled out as the grey on the head
and breast
band is usually much darker and they have dark grey tail feathers", whilst Jeff
has said "For an absolute knock out feature then look at the tail which is
white as pointed out by Rohan".)
In the Helm Guide, "Albatrosses, Petrels and Shearwaters of the World" by Onley
and Scofield, it states within the identification section for Soft-plumaged
Petrel: "Uniformly dark underwing, white undertail,....." This would relate to
a pale phase bird, which the bird in the photograph would be were it a
Soft-plumaged.
I don't believe that this is an error in this excellent, albeit occasionally
eccentric book, as I don't recall anything other than whitish undertail
feathers on pale phase birds. Perhaps Rohan and Jeff were considering the
uppertail?
BTW Neither do I believe that Peter Ryan would have called the bird in question
a White-bellied Storm Petrel!!
Cheers - Trevor.
Trevor Ford
==============================www.birding-aus.org
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