G’day everyone.
Can someone ID this bird for me? I think it’s either a Short-tailed or a Sooty Shearwater. It was taken at Long Reef this morning.
Using Morecombe’s it looks similar to a Short-tailed, but the Sooty has more white underneath like the bird in the image.
Link to image: http://bit.ly/bT4c45
Of note I was watching this bird for about 20mins. Initially it was sitting in the water just beyond the breaking waves, but soon the waves and tide brought it to within 15m of the shore. Every now and again it would make an attempt to fly, but would stop and just sit on the water. Twice it tried to grab a small fish that swam close to it. Other than that it would dive under a wave and made little attempt to get out again past the waves. After 20mins or so it flew off to about 10m past the waves to join another bird.
Regards,
Mark
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au
http://birding-aus.org ===============================
G’day Mark,
The under-primaries are contrastingly very pale compared to the under-primary coverts , that’s a good pointer to Short-tailed away from Sooty. Sooty typically has under-primary coverts that are contrastingly white compared to the underside of the primaries which should look a shade darker, these coverts also should show dark central streaks radiating from the leading edge of wing. Beyond that the outer wing looks more rounder at the tip and the bill isn’t quite long enough for a typical Sooty but these features are also OK for Short-tailed.
Cheers Jeff.