Northern Giant Petrel

Description:

A large albatross-sized petrel that is very common in the Southern Ocean. Very similar to the Southern Giant Petrel (http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/181...), but its range is centred more northerly. The easiest way to distinguish between the two species is that the Northern Giant Petrel has a reddish bill tip, while the Southern has a green bill tip. Like the Southern Giant Petrel, the Northern has recently had its status upgraded from Near Threatened to Least Concern by CITES.

Habitat:

Open ocean mainly, found in the Southern Ocean but not quite as far south as its counterpart. They generally don't go much further south than the Antarctic Convergence, and can be found quite far north in Chile, South Africa and Australia.

Notes:

We saw these ones much less than the Southern Giant Petrel. I saw very few Northerns throughout my trip, mainly because we spent most of our time south of the Antarctic Convergence.