White-headed Petrel

Pterodroma lessonii (Garnot, 1826)

White-headed Petrel, Pterodroma lessonii, is a petrel of the Southern Ocean, breeding on subantarctic islands in the South Indian and South Pacific oceans from Crozet to the Antipodes and Auckland Islands. Outside the breeding season it ranges to waters off southern South America, southern Africa, Australasia and Antarctica. It is marked by a pale white head and a dark eye patch, with long narrow wings and a long pointed tail. It nests in burrows dug among tussocks and herbfields, and may breed alone or in colonies.

Order

Procellariiformes

Family

Procellariidae — Petrels, Shearwaters, Diving Petrels

Breeding range

Southern Ocean: subantarctic islands of South Indian and South Pacific oceans, from Crozet (sw Indian Ocean) to Antipodes (se of Stewart I.) and Auckland is. (s of South I.; New Zealand)

Nonbreeding range

to waters of s South America, s Africa, s Australasia and Antarctica