Gould's petrel
| Gould's petrel | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Procellariiformes |
| Family: | Procellariidae |
| Genus: | Pterodroma |
| Species: | P. leucoptera |
| Binomial name | |
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Pterodroma leucoptera (Gould, 1844) |
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Gould's petrel (Pterodroma leucoptera) is a species of seabird in the family Procellariidae. The common name commemorates the English ornithologist and bird artist John Gould (1804-1881).
Gould's petrel is a small gadfly petrel, white below and dark brown and grey above. The species is classified within the subgenus Cookilaria, all members of which have a dark M pattern across the upper wings. Gould's petrel has long narrow wings, a short rounded tail and the head is noticeably dark, with a white forehead and face. Gould's petrel is 30 cm in length with a wingspan of 70 cm and weighs 180-200g. Males are slightly larger than females.
There are two subspecies of Gould's petrel. The nominate subspecies (Pterodroma leucoptera leucoptera) breeds on several small islands off the New South Wales coast in Australia, but primarily on Cabbage Tree Island (John Gould Nature Reserve). The other subspecies (P. l. caledonica) breeds on New Caledonia and differs from the nominate subspecies in being slightly larger in morphological measurements, and having a more robust bill, paler back and sides of the breast, reduced pigmentation on the underside of the wing, and a white or mainly white inner vane of the outer rectrix
Some authorities regard the collared petrel (P. brevipes) as another subspecies of Gould's petrel and some raise the New Caledonian petrel to species status and regard the three taxons as a superspecies.
Gould's petrel is sometimes known as the white-winged petrel, but as other closely related gadfly petrels have considerably more white on the underwing the former name is preferred. Gould's petrel is the name chosen by W.B. Alexander in his classic work Birds of the Ocean.
Gould described this bird in 1844, naming it Cook's petrel (Procellaria cookii) after James Cook. In his 1865 Handbook he changed the name to white-winged petrel (Aestrelata leucoptera).
Today it is known as Gould's petrel (Pterodroma leucoptera).
Gould's petrels spend most of their life at sea and come ashore only to breed.
Prior to the 1990s it was thought that the Australian subspecies of Gould's petrel bred only on Cabbage Tree Island off Port Stephens in New South Wales. After the discovery of a small number of breeding pairs on neighbouring Boondelbah Island, translocation of 200 chicks in 1999 and 2000 has established a small satellite colony which breeds in artificial nest boxes that were installed prior to the first translocation . In December 2009, just one month after it had been confirmed that rabbits had been eliminated from Cabbage Tree Island, one single Gould's petrel was found incubating an egg on another nearby island, Broughton Island.
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Wikipedia