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Barau's Petrel | Pterodroma baraui
Baraus stormvogel | Fardela de Barau
Barau's Petrel is a Pterodroma with a dark cap, grey upperparts and a white underwing with dark margins that breeds only on Réunion. Since the first confirmed record off Richards Bay in 2003 it has become a familiar, if scarce, visitor off the east coast of southern Africa.
Voice
Silent at sea. At the colony at night a high, plaintive ki-ki-ki-keee and wailing calls above the breeding slopes.
Recording: Daniel Danckwerts — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
About 39 cm, with long, narrow wings and a black bill. Forehead and face are white, the crown and hindneck dark grey, forming a cap that continues onto the side of the breast as a grey half-collar. Back and upperwing are grey with a dark M-pattern; the tail is dark grey and wedge-shaped. The underparts are bright white. The underwing is white with a dark diagonal bar from the carpal, a black wingtip and a narrow dark trailing edge. The legs are flesh-coloured with dark toes. The sexes and ages are alike. It flies fast in high, swinging arcs.
Confusion species
Soft-Plumaged Petrel (Pterodroma mollis) has a wholly dark underwing and usually a complete grey breast band. The pale morph of Trindade Petrel (Pterodroma arminjoniana) has a brown head and breast and a dark underwing with a pale patch at the base of the primaries. Cape Verde Petrel (Pterodroma feae) of the Atlantic also has a dark underwing.
Habitat
Warm tropical and subtropical waters of the Indian Ocean, often over seamounts and along fronts where prey comes to the surface, sometimes in mixed flocks with shearwaters. It feeds mainly on small fish and squid. It breeds in burrows on steep, vegetated slopes high in the mountains of Réunion.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of southern Africa.
Range and movements
In the region a scarce but now regular visitor to deep water off KwaZulu-Natal, especially off Durban and Richards Bay, and off southern Mozambique; most records fall in the austral summer and autumn. Rare further south-west as far as off the Eastern Cape. The species breeds only on Réunion and outside the breeding season moves to the central and eastern tropical Indian Ocean.
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
The best chance is a pelagic trip out of Durban or Richards Bay to deep water, especially between November and April. It does not follow ships; search among shearwaters over feeding tuna for a grey petrel with a white underwing towering high. The dark cap and the diagonal carpal bar show well in photographs.
Conservation status
Endangered. The entire world population breeds on Réunion, where rats and cats kill eggs, chicks and adults, and young birds are disoriented by artificial light when they fledge and crash to the ground. Programmes on the island control predators, reduce light pollution and rescue grounded birds.
Scientific name
Pterodroma baraui | (Jouanin, 1964)
Jouanin described the species in 1964 as Bulweria baraui; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Pterodroma was introduced in 1856 by Bonaparte. Pterodroma is Greek, from pteron 'wing' and dromos 'runner', after the fast, sweeping flight. baraui honours Armand Barau, agricultural engineer and ornithologist on Réunion, the petrel's only breeding site. The specimen the first description was based on came from Saint-Denis, Réunion.