Northern Giant Petrel Macronectes halli

Northern Giant Petrel Macronectes halli

Chilean name: Petrel gigante subantártico

Chile

The Northern Giant Petrel breeds on various islands in the southern seas bordering the Antarctic but the juveniles in particular disperse widely throughout the southern oceans.

There is a distribution map on xeno-canto .

Photos 1 to 3 were taken off Robinson Crusoe Island while photos 4 to 6 were taken from the Chacao-Pargua Ferry to Chiloe.

It is very similar to the Southern Giant Petrel M. giganteus and both species are found in the seas off Chile with the Northern generally found further south than the Southern despite their English names. Northern is also rarer than Southern and the species are very similar. The most noticeable difference is the bill where the Northern has a reddish tip to the otherwise yellow bill while the Southern has a pale green tip to its bill.

It is distinguished from the albatrosses by its shorter, narrower wings, its hump-backed look and its huge bill.

Northern Giant-Petrel, Chacao-Pargua Ferry, Chiloe, Chile, December 2005 - click for larger image

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