Wild Bird Wednesday 585 - Giant Petrels

If last week's post was about light and beauty, then this post is about power and strength.

There are two living species of Giant Petrel - the Northern Giant Petrel (Macronectes halli) and the Southern Giant Petrel (Macronectes giganteus).  They were considered to be a single species before the 1960s,  and given that the key way to tell them from each other (at least in the field) is the colour of beak tip this is hardly a surprise.

These birds are large, muscular and pretty aggressive.  They are scavengers, and many of the images of them taken on land shown them eating seal carcasses and such like! Some people call them the Vultures of the Southern Ocean.

We saw a number of individuals of both species on my recent pelagic trips off the southern coast for Australia from Eaglehawk Neck in Tasmania.

The Northern Giant Petrel has a reddish tip to its beak, and this often contrasts strongly with the rest of the beak.  The beak tip of the Southern Giant Petrel is greenish, and has far less contrast.  Trying to see this (even while a little seasick) can be a little more straight forward than it sounds - although I am still a complete beginner at such things!

This picture shows both species together (how nice of them!), with the Northern closest to the camera.

The next set of images are all Northern GPs.

with shy Albatross

The next set of pictures are Southern Giant Petrel

The pale eyes of some of these birds do give them a kind of crazy look!

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