Beck's Petrel
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| iBeck's Petrel | ||||||||||||||
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Conservation status: Critical
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| Pseudobulweria becki (Murphy, 1928) |
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Pterodroma becki |
Beck’s Petrel Pseudobulweria becki is a small, recently rediscovered gadfly petrel. It is dark brown above and on the head and throat. It is dark underneath the wings with a fairly distinct white wingbar. The belly and breast are white. It flies over open oceans with straight wings that are slightly bent back at the tips.
This bird is believed to nest on small islands with tall mountains around Melanesia.
This bird used to be known from only two specimens- a female east of New Ireland in 1928 and a male north-east of Rendova, Solomon Islands in 1929. This bird was then rediscovered and photographed in Australia’s Coral Sea by birding tour guide Richard Baxter. He noted that it was definitely not the similar and much more common Tahiti Petrel because it is much smaller. He also noted the pale throat and shorter and broader wings. Besides this rediscovery, there have been recent sightings of birds that may be Beck’s Petrel in the Bismarck Archipelago and Solomon Islands.
The binomial commemorates the American ornithologist Rollo Beck.
[edit] Reference
BirdLife International (2006) Species factsheet: Pseudobulweria becki. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 26/6/2006
http://www.birdlife.org/news/news/2006/06/becks_petrel.html Downloaded on 26/6/06
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