Friday, January 23, 2009 - Magellanic Diving Petrel, Straits of Magellan, Chile
The Magellanic Diving-Petrel (Pelecanoides magellani) is one of the four members of the Pelecanoididae, a tubenose family only represented in the Southern Ocean. This is a inshore species, not highly pelagic, which inhabits the many channels of the Fjord region of southern Chile. Their breeding grounds are still inknown.
At sea, diving-petrels are mostly detected by their sudden, fast-flapping, low and straight flight resembling Little Auk or Dovekie of the North Atlantic. Magellanic Diving-Petrel can be separated from Common or Subantarctic Diving-Petrel (Pelecanoides urinatrix) by some field marks, usually not readily visible, but with the help of digital photography it is now possible to make a proper identification by checking the following characters: (1) conspicuous and contrasting white necksides, (2) white-tipped scapulars, and (3) white-fringed-secondaries. Note also the (4) underwing-coverts are completely white.
© Photographs by Enrique Couve, Fantastico Sur Expeditions. January 19, 2009 - Straits of Magellan, Chile.
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