Common Diving Petrel

Pelecanoides urinatrix (Gmelin, JF, 1789)

Common Diving Petrel, Pelecanoides urinatrix, is a petrel of the southern oceans, breeding on islands in the subtropical to subantarctic Atlantic, Indian and south-west Pacific. Outside the breeding season it ranges through temperate and subantarctic waters of the southern hemisphere, including seas around southern South America and the region south-east of New Zealand. It is a small, plump bird with a short black bill and a black upper side, dull white underparts and thin white wing bars. The face and neck may look browner than the rest of the head. It nests in burrows, usually on vegetated slopes.

Order

Procellariiformes

Family

Procellariidae — Petrels, Shearwaters, Diving Petrels

Breeding range

Southern Ocean: islands of subtropical to subantarctic Atlantic, Indian and sw Pacific

Nonbreeding range

temperate and subantarctic southern oceans around s South America and to se of New Zealand region