Help with Mystery Shearwater
By Birding-Aus, on March 5th, 2014
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 _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
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 _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
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 nhaass@yahoo.com Brisbane, QLD ________________________________ From: Nikolas Haass < nhaass@yahoo.com> Sent: Wednesday, March 5, 2014 9:14 AM Hi Peter, It’s a Subantarctic Little Shearwater Puffinus [assimilis] elegans. Nikolas —————- Nikolas Haass nhaass@yahoo.com Brisbane, QLD ________________________________ From: Peter Diegutis < aikirock01@yahoo.com > Sent: Wednesday, March 5, 2014 9:06 AM 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 _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
Hi Peter, It’s a Subantarctic Little Shearwater Puffinus [assimilis] elegans. Nikolas —————- Nikolas Haass nhaass@yahoo.com Brisbane, QLD ________________________________ From: Peter Diegutis < aikirock01@yahoo.com > Sent: Wednesday, March 5, 2014 9:06 AM 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 _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org