Hi all
Agree with Nikolas here. Pretty obviously a Subantarctic Little Shearwater,
mostly based on the facial pattern. I noticed years ago that some Littles from
Lord Howe had a bit of mottling below the eye line, but it was nothing like
fully blackish areas below the eye line like in this bird. Not sure about the
overall bluish-black with pale tips though as a character for Subantarctic
(although it doesn't hurt for that species). The Littles on Lord Howe had quite
a distinctive bluish hue to the black and I would say this frosting would be a
freshness character, especially for juveniles straight off the nest. I must
admit there is a fair amount of this on the wings & upperparts, more so than
normal for a Little, so he is probably right. Nikolas is also right about the
wing shape, from what a remember Lord Howe Littles have quite a rounded
wingtip, so something to watch out for. I guess where it was photographed would
make it far more likely to be Subantarctic anyway.-Kevin Bartram
> Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2014 15:25:26 -0800
> From:
> To: ;
> Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Help with Mystery Shearwater
>
> And here the reason for my ID:
>
> Underwing pattern: Clearly puts this bird into the Little Shearwater group
> Facial pattern: Dark cap reaching well under eye-line (pro Subantarctic
> [elegans]; contra 'normal' Little [assimilis, haurakiensis, kermadecensis,
> tunneyi]).
> Upperparts: Overall colour blueish black with pale tips causing pale bars
> (pro Subantarctic; contra 'normal' Little).
> Wings appear quite pointy and tail quite sharp-edged/diamond-shaped - not
> sure if this is useful as well for ID (I think both tail and wings should
> appear more roundish in 'normal' Little)
>
> Nikolas
>
> ----------------
> Nikolas Haass
>
> Brisbane, QLD
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Nikolas Haass <>
> To: Peter Diegutis <>; ""
> <>
> Sent: Wednesday, March 5, 2014 9:14 AM
> Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Help with Mystery Shearwater
>
>
>
> Hi Peter,
>
> It's a Subantarctic Little Shearwater Puffinus [assimilis] elegans.
>
> Nikolas
>
> ----------------
> Nikolas Haass
>
> Brisbane, QLD
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Peter Diegutis <>
> To: "" <>
> Sent: Wednesday, March 5, 2014 9:06 AM
> Subject: [Birding-Aus] Help with Mystery Shearwater
>
>
> Good Morning Seabird Aficionados
>
> The unscrupulous list-ticker in me wants to call this a Little Shearwater and
> be done with it. But there's still enough honest sea-birder left for me to
> see problems with this call.
>
> The Bird: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aikirock01/
> Location: 100NM southwest of the Snares Islands, NZ.
> Time: About 3 weeks ago.
>
> Your help is appreciated.
>
> Cheers
> Peter
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