Fea's Petrel
Overview
Fea's Petrel: Medium petrel, gray-brown upperparts, white belly. White breast with partial gray-brown breast band. Wings bend back at the wrist, have a dark M pattern across upperwings and lower back. Underwings are mostly dark. White face, dark mask around eyes. Gray tail, pale uppertail coverts.
Range and Habitat
Fea's Petrel: Breeds in the north Atlantic in the Cape Verde Islands and Madeira Islands. It can be seen solitary off North and mid-Atlantic Coasts. Fea's Petrel breeds in areas where there is a thick layer of earth covered with grass. On and around the southern plateau of Bugio there are places with earth more than 3 feet thick, needed for constructing burrows.
INTERESTING FACTS
Like most petrels, the walking ability of the Fea’s Petrel’s is limited to a short shuffle to its burrow.
This bird is named after the Italian zoologist Leonardo Fea. It is also known as Gon-gon or Cape Verde Petrel.
It is strictly nocturnal at breeding sites to avoid predation by gulls.
A group of petrels are collectively known as a "gallon" and a "tank" of petrels.
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