soft-plumaged petrel
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The soft-plumaged petrel (''Pterodroma mollis'') is a species of
seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same enviro ...
in the family
Procellariidae The family Procellariidae is a group of seabirds that comprises the fulmarine petrels, the gadfly petrels, the diving petrels, the prions, and the shearwaters. This family is part of the bird order Procellariiformes (or tubenoses), which als ...
.


Distribution

It breeds on islands in the Southern Hemisphere, nesting on
Tristan da Cunha Tristan da Cunha (), colloquially Tristan, is a remote group of volcanic islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world, lying approximately from Cape Town in South Africa, from Saint Helena a ...
, Gough Island, the
Prince Edward Islands The Prince Edward Islands are two small uninhabited islands in the sub-Antarctic Indian Ocean that are part of South Africa. The islands are named Marion Island (named after Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne, 1724–1772) and Prince Edward Island ...
, Crozet Islands,
Macquarie Island Macquarie Island is an island in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, about halfway between New Zealand and Antarctica. Regionally part of Oceania and politically a part of Tasmania, Australia, since 1900, it became a Tasmanian State Reserve in 197 ...
, and on the
Antipodes Islands The Antipodes Islands ( Maōri: Moutere Mahue; "Abandoned island") are inhospitable and uninhabited volcanic islands in subantarctic waters to the south of – and territorially part of – New Zealand. The 21 km2 archipelago lies 860  ...
of
New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
. Small numbers breed in the Maatsuyker Island Group of southern
Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...
. It disperses outside the breeding season, reaching eastern
South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...
north to
Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
, southern
Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
and Australia. It has occurred as a
vagrant Vagrancy is the condition of homelessness without regular employment or income. Vagrants (also known as bums, vagabonds, rogues, tramps or drifters) usually live in poverty and support themselves by begging, scavenging, petty theft, temporar ...
in
Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
,
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...
and
Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...
.


Taxonomy

Fea's petrel (''P. feae''),
Desertas petrel The Desertas petrel (''Pterodroma deserta'') is a small seabird in the gadfly petrel genus which breeds on Bugio Island in the Desertas off Madeira. The gadfly petrels in the genus ''Pterodroma'' are seabirds of temperate and tropical oceans. M ...
(''P. desertae'') and
Zino's petrel Zino's petrel (''Pterodroma madeira'') or the freira, is a species of small seabird in the gadfly petrel genus, endemic to the island of Madeira. This long-winged petrel has a grey back and wings, with a dark "W" marking across the wings, and a ...
(''P. madeira'') of the North Atlantic were formerly treated as subspecies of this bird.


Description

The soft-plumaged petrel is a medium-sized petrel. Its plumage is dark grey and white, and its wings are narrow and with a pointed tail distinct in flight. It has a dark grey head with prominent white feathers on the cheeks and throat. There is a white speckling on forehead along with a prominent dark eye patch. Its underside is mostly white, which turned dark grey at underwings. The bill is black and about 25–32 mm long and has a sharp hook. Its legs are pink with black on the outer webs and toes. Both sexes are noisy, making medium-pitched moans and shrill squeaks. File:Soft-plumaged Petrel.jpg, On land File:Pterodroma mollis MHNT.ZOO.2010.11.42.11.jpg, ''Pterodroma mollis'' - MHNT File:Pterodroma mollis dark morph - SE Tasmania 2019.jpg, Dark morph


References


External links


Soft-plumaged petrel photos
Birds of Saint Helena Island Birds of subantarctic islands Birds of the Atlantic Ocean Birds of the Indian Ocean Birds of the Pacific Ocean Fauna of the Crozet Islands Fauna of the Prince Edward Islands soft-plumaged petrel soft-plumaged petrel Taxa named by John Gould Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{procellariiformes-stub