G’day Nikolas,
Mick’s bird appears to have a typical pale morph body but with a slightly darker under-wing. However the only image that shows the darker than typical under-wing also shows an almost completely dark hood which we know isn’t real from other photos of the bird on the water where it looks like a normal pale morph head, so it is difficult to judge how dark the under-wing really is. This slightly out of focus ventral view gives the equivalent impression of an intermediate morph Pink-footed Shearwater for the under-wing.
Raja’s bird looks to me like a dark morph with retained extremely worn belly, a bit like you sometimes see in Providence Petrel. The dorsal surface, head and flanks look fresh but the fresh feathers are tightly encircling a trashed belly, there is a sharp cut off between the trashed belly and the encircling fresh feathers.
I am unaware of any photos from Australian waters of Pale morph birds apart from Mick’s. HANZAB states there is a record of a pale morph bird breeding at Solitary Island NSW, Bill Lane 1972, and also Serventy 1972 estimates that 20-30% of birds breeding at Shark Bay are pale morph. Pale morphs are the norm in mid west pacific, Japan, Hawaii etc.
Cheers Jeff.
