Herald Petrel Pterodroma heraldica 信使圓尾鸌
Category I. Accidental.
IDENTIFICATION
35-39 cm. Medium-sized petrel that occurs in three morphs: pale, dark and intermediate. Pale and intermediate birds have a pale nose band and hind collar and pale loral area that is speckled grey. Rather slender structure with long square-cut tail, long and narrow wings and small head and bill. The underwings are dark with pale flashes at the base of the primaries and primary coverts. The chest is dull greyish and the belly extensively, though variably, whitish. The lores, chin and throat are pale.
VOCALISATIONS
Does not appear to call away from breeding sites.
DISTRIBUTION & HABITAT PREFERENCE
The sole record is of a bird in the intertidal area of Inner Deep Bay.
OCCURRENCE
2001: one seen from the boardwalk hide at the edge of the Inner Deep Bay mudflat on 16 March.
BEHAVIOUR, FORAGING & DIET
The sole record concerns a bird being harried by a Lesser Frigatebird.
RANGE & SYSTEMATICS
Breeds in tropical areas of the Pacific Ocean from northeast Australia east to Easter Island; also on Round Island, Mauritius in the western Indian Ocean (Kirwan and Pyle 2022).
CONSERVATION STATUS
IUCN: Least Concern. Population decreasing.
Kirwan, G. M. and P. Pyle (2022). Herald Petrel (Pterodroma heraldica), version 1.1. In Birds of the World (S. M. Billerman, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.herpet2.01.1.
