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Northern Giant-Petrel (Macronectes halli) Alternate name(s): "Hall's Giant-Petrel", "Giant Fulmar*", "Mother Carey's Goose*", "Nelly*", "Stinker*" Size: 80-95 cm; wing span 1.5-2.1 m Body mass: ca. 3.5-5 kg (male); ca. 2.5-4 kg (female) Wing loading [g/cm2]: 1.05 (male), 0.85 (female)

Australia: Family Group 3 Family Group 3 table Southern Fulmar Antarctic Petrel Cape Petrel Mottled Petrel Black-winged Petrel Providence Petrel Grey-faced Petrel Kermadec Petrel Soft-plumaged Petrel Tahiti Petrel Buller's Shearwater Wedge-tailed Shearwater Flesh-footed Shearwater Sooty Shearwater Short-tailed Shearwater Fluttering Shearwater Hutton's Shearwater Little Shearwater Antarctic Prion Slender-billed Prion Fairy Prion Blue Petrel Southern Giant-Petrel Northern Giant-Petrel Light-mantled Albatross Wandering Albatross Southern Royal Albatross Northern Royal Albatross Black-browed Albatross Campbell Albatross Buller's Albatross Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross Shy Albatross Common Diving-Petrel Wilson's Storm-Petrel New Zealand Storm-Petrel White-faced Storm-Petrel Thumbnails page Family group table Index of bird names Habitat pages Key plants Birds home page

Similar species

Description     Classification     Distribution     Sightings     Photos     Breeding     Nest     Eggs     Behaviour     Food     Call/s

Physical description Click here for a physical description Northern Giant-Petrels are big seabirds with a brownish-grey plumage. Feathers are mottled with thin grey edges. The face is light-grey, the front mottled grey to almost white, while the back is a darker shade of mottled grey, in many cases appearing solid dark-grey. Adults have white irises and the bill is yellow, with a pinkish-brown tip. Juveniles are all dark grey-brown. They have dark irises. Twitcher's tip The two species of Giant-Petrels can be told apart by the colour of the tip of their bill. Northern Giant-Petrels have a pinkish-brown tip that is visibly darker than the rest of the bill. Southern Giant-Petrels have a greenish tip that does not show any contrast in brightness compared to the rest of the bill.

Taxonomy, classification See Northern Giant-Petrel at Wikipedia .

Range, habitat, finding this species Click here for information on habitat and range The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org . The global distribution of the Northern Giant-Petrel is available HERE . The range of the Northern Giant-Petrel is circumpolar, encompassing all southern oceans and coastal waters around the southern continents. Northern Giant-Petrels are a pelagic species that reaches the Australian coastline anywhere up to a few hundred km South of the tropic of Capricorn on both the East coast and the West coast. Northern Giant-Petrels breed on numerous offshore islands.

Sightings Click here for sighting information B. Hensen reports spotting Northern Giant-Petrels off Macquarie Island in the Southern Ocean in December 1993. M. Mearns reports finding a Northern Giant-Petrel in Antarctica in January 2005. M. Eaton spotted Northern Giant-Petrels on a pelagic off Eaglehawk Neck, near Hobart, TAS, in September 2021. Outside Australian territory, C. Pears found Northern Giant-Petrels near the Antarctic peninsula in December 2024.

Photos

ADULT

Sex unknown

Close-up frontal view of an adult Northern Giant-Petrel - note the pinkish-brown tip of the bill and the light-grey iris (photo courtesy of C. Pears)
[December 2024]

Close-up frontal view of a Northern Giant-Petrel (photo courtesy of C. Pears)
[December 2024]

Frontal view of a Northern Giant-Petrel (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Off Eaglehawk Neck, near Hobart, TAS, September 2021]

Frontal view of a Northern Giant-Petrel (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Off Eaglehawk Neck, near Hobart, TAS, September 2021]

Near-frontal portrait of a Northern Giant-Petrel (photo courtesy of C. Pears)
[December 2024]

Near-lateral view of a Northern Giant-Petrel looking towards the observer (photo courtesy of C. Pears)
[December 2024]

Close-up near-lateral view of a Northern Giant-Petrel (photo courtesy of C. Pears)
[December 2024]

Close-up lateral view of a Northern Giant-Petrel (photo courtesy of C. Pears)
[December 2024]

Lateral view of a Northern Giant-Petrel on the ground (photo courtesy of M. Mearns)
[Antarctica, January 2005]

Lateral view of a Northern Giant-Petrel (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Off Eaglehawk Neck, near Hobart, TAS, September 2021]

Near-frontal comparison of a Northern Giant-Petrel, far right, with a juvenile Southern Giant-Petrel
(photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Off Eaglehawk Neck, near Hobart, TAS, September 2021]

Lateral comparison of a Northern Giant-Petrel, left, with a juvenile Southern Giant-Petrel (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Off Eaglehawk Neck, near Hobart, TAS, September 2021]

Close-up near-dorsal view of a Northern Giant-Petrel (photo courtesy of C. Pears)
[December 2024]

Small mob of Northern Giant-Petrels (photo courtesy of C. Pears)
[December 2024]

Near-lateral view of a Northern Giant-Petrel in flight (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Macquarie Island, Southern Ocean, December 1993]

Lateral view of a Northern Giant-Petrel in flight (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Off Eaglehawk Neck, near Hobart, TAS, September 2021]

IMMATURE/JUVENILE

Close-up lateral portrait of a sub-adult Northern Giant-Petrel - the irises are turning grey (photo courtesy of C. Pears)
[December 2024]

Food, Diet

Next to fresh kills, Northern Giant Petrels also feed on carrion.

Near-frontal view of a Northern Giant-Petrel ripping into a carcass in the water (photo courtesy of C. Pears)
[December 2024]

Small mob of Northern Giant-Petrels feeding on a carcass in the water; one of them is telling a Kelp Gull about the local pecking order (photo courtesy of C. Pears)
[December 2024]

Near-frontal view of an adult Northern Giant-Petrel "in a bloody mess" - eviscerating a seal carcass; on the left a Brown Skua (photo courtesy of C. Pears)
[December 2024]

Northern Giant-Petrel "in a bloody mess" - eviscerating a seal carcass; Brown Skuas and a Kelp Gull must wait their turn (photo courtesy of C. Pears)
[December 2024]

Close-up lateral view of a Northern Giant-Petrel ripping into a carcass (photo courtesy of C. Pears)
[December 2024]

Northern Giant-Petrel feeding on an Elephant seal carcass (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Macquarie Island, Southern Ocean, December 1993]

Northern Giant-Petrel, centre, and three Brown Skuas feeding on a seal carcass (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Macquarie Island, Southern Ocean, December 1993]

Northern Giant-Petrel gobbling up food scraps (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Off Eaglehawk Neck, near Hobart, TAS, September 2021]

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