Snow petrel
| Snow petrel | ||||||||||
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Snow petrel ( Pagodroma nivea ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||
| Pagodroma nivea | ||||||||||
| ( G. Forster , 1777) |
The Snow Petrel ( Pagodroma nivea ) is a bird art from the family of the Petrels (Procellariidae). Snow petrels are one of the three species of birds that have been observed at the geographic South Pole. Together with Antarctic petrel and Antarctic skua , their breeding areas in Antarctica are more southern than those of all other birds.
features
With a body length of 36 to 41 cm and a wingspan of 76 to 79 cm, it is one of the smaller representatives of this family. It is characterized by a pure white plumage as well as a black beak and dark gray feet. With its bat-like wings it is very agile. It can only be seen very rarely beyond the pack ice border of the Antarctic Sea.
Like other species of the order of Procellariiformes they produce a stomach oil , which in the glandular stomach saved and attackers such as skuas can be answered spat. The oil also serves as an energy store for long flights and for feeding the young birds.
A concentrated saline solution is secreted through the tubes above the beak, which is formed in glands above the nasal passage and comes from the seawater that the birds ingest.
Way of life
Snow petrels live to be 14 to 20 years old. They feed on small fish and carrion.
The breeding takes place on the Antarctic mainland and on several Antarctic and sub-Antarctic islands such as the Bouvet Island or the South Orkney Islands belonging Coronation Island . The Pagodromae niveae that brood there gave the nearby, 1265 m high Mount Nivea its name. Occasionally it breeds on mountains of the Antarctic continent several hundred kilometers inland and protruding out of the ice, such as the Grjotlia elevations, 110 km away from the coast, near the Norwegian polar station Troll Stasjonen .
The birds return to their breeding grounds in November. Only one egg is incubated for 41 to 49 days. The nestling period lasts 41 to 54 days. The chicks are threatened by both skuas and unfavorable weather conditions.
Individual evidence
- ^ Snow Petrel-New Zealand Birds Online .
- ^ Snow petrel . In: Australian Government .
- Jump up ↑ MC Double, Michael Hutchins, Jerome A. Jackson, Walter J. Bock, Donna Olendorf: Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia - Procellariiformes (Tubenosed Seabirds) , Joseph E. Trumpey, Chief Scientific Illustrator, 2nd. Edition, Volume 8, Birds I Tinamous and Ratites to Hoatzins, Gale Group, Farmington Hills, MI 2003, ISBN 0-7876-5784-0 , pp. 107-111.
- ^ Paul R. Ehrlich, David, S. Dobkin, Darryl Wheye: The Birders Handbook , First. Edition, Simon & Schuster, New York, NY, 1988, ISBN 0-671-65989-8 , p 29 -31.
- ↑ Øystein in Antarctica (English), February 18, 2008, accessed on April 15, 2013
Web links
- Pagodroma nivea in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2008. Accessed January 31 of 2009.
- Videos, photos and sound recordings on Pagodroma nivea in the Internet Bird Collection