A Pteredroma seen off the Mooloolaba on Queensland's Sunshine Coast on
November 5 was very likely a Stejneger's Petrel, a new bird for the
Australian list. See here for pictures:
http://sunshinecoastbirds.blogspot.com/.
We had encountered unusually high numbers of Mottled Petrels when the
Pteredroma came in behind the boat about 40 nautical miles offshore. At
first we thought it was a Gould's Petrel on the basis of its dark brown cap
contrasting with a lighter brown-greyish mantle.
Later, while examining his photographs at home, Paul Walbridge came to the
conclusion the bird was a Stejneger's Petrel. I readily agreed when I saw
the images.
Note the white forehead and partial collar behind the eye; the underwing
with narrow black borders, with the leading edge terminating in a short
diagonal stripe at the carpal join; and the head-and-mantle colouring.
The very pale underwing rules out Black-winged, Gould's and Collared - all
of which show much more black. The head and upperparts colouration rules out
Black-winged, Pycroft's and Cook's (all of which have paler, greyish heads
that do not contrast with the mantle). While the underwing is similar, the
small diagonal stripe on both Pycroft's and Cook's extends further than in
Stejneger's. The half-collar behind the eye is a feature not shared by
Gould's, Collared and Cook's, although the very closely related Pycroft's
also has it. The record will be submitted to BARC.
Stejneger's Petrel breeds off the coast of Chile. While not recorded
previously in Australia, several beach-washed specimens have been found in
New Zealand.
The day proved to be an amazingly successful pelagic with this bird, 50+
Mottled Petrels, Red-footed Booby and Black-bellied Storm-Petrel, among
others.
Greg Roberts
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