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Madeira Pelagic Bird (long shot...) (1 Viewer)

rylirk

rylirk

Well-known member
United Kingdom
Hi all, I think the photo is going to be Un-IDable but I'm hoping a description might help? Took a tourist boat out of Funchal (only a few miles from shore) and saw maaany Cory's Shearwater but not a lot else; except this one bird. It seemed smaller and slenderer than the Cory's, and much darker, with longer thin wings (almost swift shaped). I think the other expected species in the area would be Bulwer's Petrel and Manx Shearwater; would either fit the bill?
 

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rylirk said:
Hi all, I think the photo is going to be Un-IDable but I'm hoping a description might help? Took a tourist boat out of Funchal (only a few miles from shore) and saw maaany Cory's Shearwater but not a lot else; except this one bird. It seemed smaller and slenderer than the Cory's, and much darker, with longer thin wings (almost swift shaped). I think the other expected species in the area would be Bulwer's Petrel and Manx Shearwater; would either fit the bill?
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Seems to be all dark, which would be Bulwer's. I did much the same sort of trip many years ago & saw 2-3 Bulwer's. Tapered/ pointed tail was a good ID pointer.
 
Yes, I had it in the bins for a good few seconds and saw no white on the bird at all; I was surprised not to see any Bulwer's on the trip, but maybe I did after all?
 
I was on a pelagic trip from Funchal on 18 and 19 June and if you only went 5 miles out I’d fully expect your species to be lots of Corys, and a few Manxies and Bulwers. Apart from white gulls and terns I saw no other bird species at all. If it was all brown it was almost certainly a Bulwers Petrel. I saw 115 of them over the 2 Pelagics.
 
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