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It’s that time of year when a young man’s thoughts turn to tropical seabirds like the Christmas Shearwater… wait, that doesn’t work! In fact, if you were looking for a bird that represented the spirit and traditions of Christmas, this elegant, compact and dark shearwater would hardly be the first thing that comes to mind. [...]

Red-tailed Tropicbird. “This clumsy, ungraceful bird was displeasing to observe” – Carol F.   Pelagic trips. There is nothing in birding like a pelagic…you never know what to expect. You can end up basking in a rare bird bliss that may linger for weeks, or you basically experience a living hell. Today I will give [...]

Tubenose. No, it’s not part of a Shakespearean insult. Tubenoses are seabirds that belong to an order called Procellariiformes (from a Latin word for storm), and their English name refers to the tube-like structures that cover their nostrils, clearly visible on the Cory’s Shearwater below. Cory’s Shearwater (Calonectris diomedea) © David J. Ringer Procellariiformes contains [...]

Long before I moved in New Zealand, or visited or even knew much about the wildlife here, way back then I knew about the Poor Knights. I knew about them because I was a scuba diver. I started diving as an undergraduate in Southampton, and being unable to travel frequently at the time I consumed [...]

I’ve got two longer more wordy posts in a half finished condition this week, so rather than rush them out unfinished I’m afraid it’s another gallery this week. This week’s bird is one I briefly mentioned two weeks ago, the Fairy Prion. Unlike the poor Broad-billed Prions we had washed onshore last month, I saw [...]

The IOC World Bird list proposed a number of unconventional bird names, most notably the Great Northern Loon (Gavia immer) and the Roughleg (Buteo lagopus). One proposed change was Angel Tern, a new name for the angelic White Tern. The name wasn’t proposed to settle a trans-Atlantic dispute like the previous two names, but instead [...]

I’m not sure what the collective noun for a group of petrels is, but the vets and wildlife carers of New Zealand might be forgiven for thinking that it might be a wreck after this week. Two weeks of strong westerly winds have pushed thousands of Southern Ocean prions onto the land along the entire [...]

I’ve spoken before about the time I was lucky enough to work on Tern Island in French Frigate Shoals. Part of the Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge, it is an amazing place to take in the seabirds of the North Pacific. Last time I talked about the amazing Great Frigatebirds, today I’ll introduce the birds [...]

There is a very distinctive smell found on seabird colonies, where thousands upon thousands of birds come to breed and, coincidentally, deposit large quantities of waste. It is a smell, however, that I am barely able to smell anymore, as three years of working breeding seasons on seabird islands of the Farallones in California have [...]

The order Suliformes holds a lot of special birds from anhingas and darters to cormorants and shags as well as frigatebirds, pelicans, and tropicbirds. But the sleekest of the sulids may be found in the family Sulidae. Gannets and boobies are pulchritudinous plunge divers possessed of long wings, conical bills, and totipalmate (all four toes are webbed), [...]

It’s winter down here for sure now, and winter in Kaikoura, on the coast of South Island north of Christchurch, means one thing, albatrosses! This time a few years ago I attended an ornithological conference in Kaikoura, and the day afterwards we went out to see the many seabirds that come in close to the [...]

You have got to admire the Manx Shearwater. As a youngster of 10-weeks old, it is abandoned by its parents and left to fend for itself. Its first flight will take it from its burrow, usually on the west coast of the United Kingdom, to the coast of South America, an extraordinary journey for an unaccompanied minor. [...]

Last week I introduced the Great Frigatebird, one of five species of man-o-war bird. I got rather carried away showing all the plumages you can see around a breeding colony, which means I had to split my post on the species into two. Here I’ll finish off what I started, looking at the lives of [...]

I’ve always thought there is something prehistoric about frigatebirds, as something about their shape evokes in my mind the shape I imagine the later pterosaurs would cut in the late Cretaceous skies. This association belies the advanced and highly sophisticated adaptations the family has evolved for a life of wandering, hunting and, yes, piracy on [...]

I’ve mentioned before that New Zealand is a great place for enjoying petrels. In particular the South Island destination of Kaikoura is world-renowned for the flocks of albatrosses and giant petrels floating right off the pelagic boat, and the ease of the trip makes it a must-visit for any visiting birder. Kaikoura isn’t, however, the [...]

After the monumental climb that was Tongariro Crossing (related last week) Nicole and I parted company with our other friends and moved on to the next stop, Hawke’s Bay. Before we had even pulled out of the shadow of Tongariro we stopped at the National Trout Centre on the Tongariro River to have another look [...]

It sometimes feels like conservation news is nothing but doom and gloom, so sit back and enjoy a recent success story from New Zealand. The story involves one of the less well known of New Zealand’s species, the Hutton’s Shearwater. Hutton’s Shearwaters (Puffinus huttoni). Image Credit: Duncan Wright New Zealand has a lot of seabirds, [...]

This will be the last post using material from the pelagic trip I took over a week ago, but I think I might have saved the best for last.  Northern Gannets Morus bassanus are an amazing bird to watch, especially from a boat where one can see them up close in their element.  On the [...]

Five days ago Daisy and I, staying busy doing our post-bar exam babymoon staycation, went on a whale watching trip on the Viking Star, a vessel based in Montauk Harbor at the eastern extremity of Long Island.  The trip, one of three weekly trips organized by CRESLI (Coastal Research and Education Society of Long Island), [...]

Terns have it tough.  Everyone in the world seems to know about gulls, but unless you’ve spent time in the company of seabirds or seabirders, you’ve probably missed out on the more lithe and lovely larids! Terns are mostly medium-sized flying seabirds in the family Sternidae or subfamily Sterninae depending on your taxonomy.  Relatives of [...]