The original Fea's Petrel was recently split in to two, mainly on the grounds of feae being a
boreal winter breeder, and desertas being a summer breeder. Whilst breeding islands are different, there is much overlap in distributions, since
many non-breeding desertas are found in the Cape Verdes, and vice versa. Whilst some "classic" birds can be distinguished in the hand, Cape Verde
sometimes having a thinner
bill and darker underwings, this is impossible at sea as there is much overlap. Moult timing is a help, but only for moulting birds, obviously. Of the
photos here, the only one I can reasonably hazard a guess at is the Fea's on the main page, taken in the Cape Verdes in May.
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HOMEPAGE
