Formerly called Hall's Giant Petrel, a subantarctic breeder, not breeding on
Antarctica but sympatric with Southern on many islands further north such as South Georgia, Crozet and Macquarie. Apart from white birds the
only certain way to distinguish the two is by bill-tip colouration, greenish in Southern, reddish in Northern. If views are distant this equates to a
concolorous bill in Southern and a dark tip in Northern. Although Northern tends to breed some 6 weeks earlier, some limited hybridisation
does occur where they are sympatric, such birds would be unidentifiable at sea.The left hand shot shows both species, taken on Macquarie.
Click on the photo to return to "petrels" or here for
HOMEPAGE
