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South African pelagics 18 Sept, off Knysna (1 Viewer)

Andy Hurley

Gotta love nature!
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Please help ID these pelgics. Seen off Knysna whilst on a whale whatching trip. The last, I think is White-chinned Petrel. the first 4 are the same bird.

Thanks very much for your help.

PS I had a pale morph Southern Giant Petrel on the same trip. Are these also Giant Petrels?
 

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4th one just looks completely different jizz.....also smaller bill, etc

You mean the 5th? Because I think pics 2-4 are a sequence of photos of the same individual.
On the 5th you can actually just make out the white chin (and pale bill), however as the focus is on the background the outline of the bird is affected, appearing smaller...
 
Yeah the fifth ;)
But still looks wrong compared to others.....even allowing for angle/light etc...and the bill is dark whereas in other 4 it is obviously heavy and yellow! Looks like a Grey-faced/Great-winged type of thing but dunno the possibilities offhand off SA...
 
Yeah the fifth ;)
But still looks wrong compared to others.....even allowing for angle/light etc...and the bill is dark whereas in other 4 it is obviously heavy and yellow! Looks like a Grey-faced/Great-winged type of thing but dunno the possibilities offhand off SA...

I agree the bird is foreshortened from the angle. But still a WCP to me. The bill is in the shaded area, and yet it still looks pale on my screen (contrastingly). If it were dark, it would look just black, with no contrast at all under those lighting conditions, IMO. You can still make out the well defined small white chin, and this is pretty much diagnostic of WCP.
Other dark species present in the region (dark morph Soft-plumaged petrel, Great-winged Petrel) would show a completely dark bill (would only appear contrastingly pale, as on the photo, if directly lit), a more extensive and/or diffuse pale colour around the bill or would have to appear even more front heavy than WCP (G-W Petrel particularly). Grey-faced P is a NZ species. I think there are no other possibilities (Kerguelen P is very different, Flesh-footed Shearwater has dark chin). Just an odd photo, that's all, I'd say.
 
All 5 look like White-chinned petrels.

I can't see the last bird as a grey-faced or soft-plumaged, I think it's just in poor light which makes it difficult. WC petrel for me for number 5
 
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