Southern Fulmar
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| Southern Fulmar | ||||||||||||||
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| Fulmarus glacialoides (Smith, 1840) |
The Southern Fulmar (Fulmarus glacialoides) is a seabird of the Southern Hemisphere. Along with the Northern Fulmar (F. glacialis), it belongs to the fulmar genus Fulmarus in the family Procellariidae, the true petrels. It is also known as the Antarctic Fulmar or Silver-grey Fulmar.
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[edit] Description
It is a fairly large, bulky petrel, 45-51 cm long with a wingspan of 110-120 cm and a weight of about 800 grams. It flies with a mixture of shallow flaps and long glides, often looking down to scan the water. The wings are fairly broad and rounded and are held stiff. The plumage is mainly pale silvery-grey above and white below. The head is white with a pale grey crown. The wingtips are blackish with a large white patch and the wings have a dark rear edge. The legs and feet are pale blue. The bill is pink with a black tip and dark bluish nasal tubes. First-year birds have a slenderer bill than the adults.
It is usually silent but has loud, cackling calls which are uttered at the nest or in feeding flocks. Courting birds produce soft droning and guttural croaking calls.
[edit] Distribution
There are colonies on a number of the islands around Antarctica such as the South Sandwich Islands, South Orkney Islands, South Shetland Islands, Bouvet Island and Peter I Island. The bird also breeds at several sites along the mainland coast of Antarctica. It is a common species with about a million pairs breeding on the South Sandwich Islands.
At sea, it regularly ranges north from the edge of the pack ice to around 40°S. It occurs further north in the cool waters of the Humboldt Current, reaching Peru. Small numbers are seen off the coasts of South Africa, southern Australia and New Zealand. Many birds can be washed up on beaches after storms. There are several unconfirmed reports from the west coast of North America.
[edit] Behaviour
The breeding colonies may contain hundreds of birds and are on cliffs in ice-free areas with the birds arriving in October. The courtship display consists of a pair sitting alongside each other while calling, waving their heads and nibbling and preening each other. The nest is a shallow scrape lined with stone chips. It is built in a spot sheltered from the wind on a ledge or scree slope or in a crevice. A single, white egg is laid during late November or early December. It measures 76 by 51 mm and weighs about 103 grams. It is incubated for about 45 days with both parents taking turns in stints of 3-9 days. The down feathers of the young birds are initially white apart from a blue-grey wash on the mantle. The scond set of down feathers is grey on the upperparts and flanks while the rest of the underparts and the forehead remain white. The young fledge after around 52 days. Poor weather can lead to high mortality rates among eggs and chicks and they are also preyed on by skuas and sheathbills.
Southern Fulmars frequently gather in flocks, often with other species of seabird such as Cape Petrels, when there is a concentration of food like a school of krill or around whaling ships and trawlers. Krill and other crustaceans are the most important component of the diet but the species also feeds on small fish such as the Antarctic silverfish and squid such as Psychroteuthis, Gonatus and Galiteuthis. Food is usually picked from the surface of the water but the bird will occasionally dive.
[edit] References
- Harrison, Peter (1987) A Field Guide to Seabirds of the World, The Stephen Greene Press, Lexington, Massachusetts.
- Heather, Barrie D. & Robertson, Hugh (1996) The Field Guide to the Birds of New Zealand, Viking.
- del Hoyo, Josep; Elliott, Andrew & Sargatal, Jordi (1992) Handbook of the Birds of the World: volume 1, Ostrich to ducks, Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
- Jaramillo, Alvaro; Burke, Peter & Beadle, David (2003) Field Guide to the Birds of Chile, Christopher Helm, London
- Pizzey, Graham & Knight, Frank (1997) The Graham Pizzey & Frank Knight Field Guide to the Birds of Australia, HarperCollins, London, UK.
- Watson, George E. (1975) Birds of the Antarctic and Subantarctic, American Geophysical Union, Washington.
- Woods, Robin W. (1988) Guide to Birds of the Falkland Islands, Anthony Nelson, Oswestry
