Fea's Petrel

Pterodroma feaeOrder: PROCELLARIIFORMESFamily: Petrels and Shearwaters (Procellariidae)
Fea's Petrel Head Illustration

Head

  • Bill Shape: Hooked Seabird
  • Eye color: Brown iris
  • Head Pattern: Special (unique patterns or features)
  • Crown color: Brown
  • Forehead color: White
  • Nape Color: Gray
  • Throat color: White
  • Cere color:
Fea's Petrel Body illustration

Body

  • Length Range: 36 cm (14 in)
  • Weight: 283-312 g (10-11 oz)
  • Size: Size 3. Medium (9 - 16 in)
  • Color: White, Brown, Black, Gray
  • Underparts: White
  • Upperparts: Gray and gray-black.
  • Back Pattern: Solid
  • Belly Pattern: Solid
  • Breast Pattern: Solid
Fea's Petrel Flight Illustration

Flight

  • Flight Pattern: Fluttery wing beats alternate with glides., High erratic soaring arcs become higher and more dashing as wind speeds increase.
  • Wingspan Range: 94 cm (37 in)
  • Wing Shape: Pointed-Wings
  • Tail Shape: Pointed Tail
  • Tail Pattern: Solid
  • Upper Tail: Pale Gray
  • Under Tail: White
  • Leg color: Gray
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Family
Species Pterodroma feae
Length14 Inches
Wingspan37 Inches

Fea's Petrel

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.

● Song: Generally silent

● Foraging & Feeding: Fea's Petrel: This birds spends most of its time at sea and highly adapted for living out of contact with land. It eats small fish, cephalopods and crustaceans, often takes plankton. The birds can often be seen from the shore by day, flying and sometimes feeding. The species often feeds in large flocks around nesting islands and in waters of Southern Hemisphere. It occasionally follows ships.

● Breeding & nesting: Fea's Petrel: One white egg flecked with red or purple at large end is laid in a horizontal burrow or space between rocks lined with a small amount of plant material. Nest is built by both sexes and has varying entrance sizes and depths: the majority are more than 3 feet in length and with an elbow, the nest-chamber being 1-2 feet below the surface. Incubation ranges from 48 to 54 days and is carried out by both sexes.

● Similar species: Fea's Petrel: This bird is so similar to Zino's Petrel (a bird that breeds only on the island of Madeira) that it is extremely difficult to distinguish one from another. Fea's Petrel is heavier and considerably bigger than Zino's Petrel, especially in bill size. Another similar bird is Herald Petrel in pale morph with its ashy brown head and upperparts and dark M marking across upperwing.

Flight Pattern

Fluttery wing beats alternate with glides., High erratic soaring arcs become higher and more dashing as wind speeds increase.
Fea's Petrel Body illustration
● Range & Habitat: Fea's Petrel: This bird 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, and it is essential that a sufficient depth is available for the birds to construct burrows.
BreedingMonogamous
PopulationRare
MigrationMigratory
Weight10 - 11 Ounces