All species › Tubenoses › Petrels, shearwaters and diving petrels › White-chinned Petrel
White-chinned Petrel | Procellaria aequinoctialis
Witkinstormvogel | Fardela Negra Grande | Pardela-preta
The White-chinned Petrel is the largest Procellaria petrel and one of the most numerous. It breeds on subantarctic islands and moves north outside the breeding season, among other areas to the cold, fish-rich waters of the Humboldt Current. It follows fishing boats and is therefore one of the petrels most often killed as bycatch.
Voice
Usually silent at sea; at food it gives rattling and croaking calls. At the breeding sites a long, rattling chatter from the burrows.
Recording: Kevin Guille — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
51–58 cm, a large, all blackish-brown petrel with a stout, pale greenish-yellow to horn-coloured bill without a black tip, and black legs. The chin is usually white, but this patch is variable and often not visible at sea. The underwing is dark, with a silvery sheen at the base of the primaries. It flies with powerful wingbeats and long glides. The sexes are alike; juveniles resemble adults.
Confusion species
Westland Petrel Procellaria westlandica has a black bill tip and no white chin. Black Petrel Procellaria parkinsoni is smaller, with a smaller, dark-tipped bill. Sooty Shearwater Ardenna grisea is smaller and slimmer, with a dark bill and a silvery-white underwing. Young giant petrels Macronectes are much larger, with a much heavier bill.
Habitat
Open ocean and waters over the continental shelf, especially over cold currents. It feeds on squid, fish and krill, and follows fishing boats for waste and bait; it makes shallow dives. It breeds in burrows in boggy, vegetated ground on subantarctic islands.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Peru at sea, mainly off the south and centre, most numerous in the austral winter. In Ecuador scarce, mainly off the south coast. No confirmed records from Colombia or Bolivia; from the Galápagos exceptional at most. It does not breed in the guide area. Outside the guide area it breeds on subantarctic islands in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans; outside the breeding season over the southern oceans, north to off Peru, Brazil and South Africa.
- Resident
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
On pelagic trips from harbours in central and southern Peru, especially at fishing boats; look for the pale bill without a dark tip.
Conservation status
Vulnerable. The population is declining. Bycatch in longline and trawl fisheries kills large numbers of birds every year; introduced rats and degradation of the breeding ground are additional threats.
Scientific name
Procellaria aequinoctialis | Linnaeus, 1758
Linnaeus described the species in 1758 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. He introduced the genus Procellaria in that same work. The genus name comes from Latin procella, 'storm, gale'. The species name is Latin aequinoctialis, 'of the equinox', that is, of the equatorial regions. The specimen the first description was based on came from Cape of Good Hope, South Africa.