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Black-winged Petrel, White Tern, False Killer and more: SOSSA pelagic of

To: Chris Corben <>, "" <>
Subject: Black-winged Petrel, White Tern, False Killer and more: SOSSA pelagic off Wollongong NSW
From: Nikolas Haass <>
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 2012 13:57:12 -0800 (PST)
Hi Chris,

Thanks for your comment. At the same time we had loads of Short-tailed and 
Wedge-tailed Shearwaters around the boat. There was one Wedge-tailed Shearwater 
with conspicuously pale underwings. When I saw the bird in question, I first 
thought that it was the Wegde-tailed Shearwater with the pale underwings. This 
was caused by the relaxed flight style of this bird, which was very different 
from the accompanying Short-tailed Shearwaters. 

Interestingly, some of the features you consider typical of Short-tail looked 
to me like the opposite! That shows again how difficult it is to judge 
descriptions - even of experienced birders. Here is one funny example:

In Birding 43 (2): 54-57, 2011: 
Cin-Ty Lee describes a Pluvialis plover: "...small rounded head, almost like a 
dove. It has a thin, dainty bill..."
Michael O'Brien describes the same bird from the same photo: "It has a large 
blocky head, heavy bill..."

Back to the shearwater:

General look: This flight style can be explained by the combination of a 
relatively muscular body and very long pointed wings - both speaking for Sooty 
Shearwater.

Underwing pattern: in my opinion the underwing pattern neither rules out a pale 
Short-tailed nor a Sooty Shearwater.
Bill: To me it doesn't look small and glued on as in a Short-tailed Shearwater
Head and neck: To me the head doesn't look particularly small and the neck 
doesn't look particularly short. The forehead is actually not steep at all. In 
a classic Short-tailed Shearwater you would expect a "cute" glued on bill and 
an almost vertical forehead. In our bird the relatively prominent nostrils are 
not much lower than the more (admittedly not perfectly) sloping forehead.
Small tail and long foot projection: Correct, I agree that the tail is very 
short and therefore the foot projection very long.

So, taken everything together, it is a difficult bird. Having seen the flight 
style plus the above-mentioned field marks I still tend more toward Sooty. 
Looking forward to more comments!

Cheers,

Nikolas



 
----------------
Nikolas Haass

Sydney, NSW


________________________________
From: Chris Corben <>
To:  
Sent: Monday, January 30, 2012 3:04 AM
Subject: Black-winged Petrel, White Tern, False Killer and more: SOSSA pelagic 
off Wollongong NSW
 
Not a simple ID, but why isn't the Sooty Shearwater at this link a Short-tailed?

To me, the shiny underwing with so little contrast is much more of a 
Short-tailed feature, especially on the under primary coverts, where a Sooty 
shows dark streaks which contrast sharply with the very white background. This 
bird, like  Short-tailed, shows a more silvery, reflective-looking background, 
and the dark streaks are missing, or at least showing very low contrast. They 
look more like shadings in the feathers than clearcut areas of dark pigment. 
The low contrast between the the shiny primary bases and the coverts is also a 
warning sign. These features can be really hard to be sure of in the field, 
because they are so light dependent, but these photos, especially the third, 
are good enough in my opinion.

The general look of the bird also makes me think of Short-tailed, with the 
small bill, small head, steep forehead,  small tail, and long foot projection. 
None of which would be definitive in itself, and I am sure you could find 
pictures of both species showing and not showing these features. But overall, 
it looks good for Short-tailed, doesn't it?

Cheers, Chris.


On 01/29/2012 06:25 AM, Nikolas Haass wrote:
> Here are Raja's photos: www.adarman.com/Pelagics/2012-January-28-Wollongong
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Nikolas

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