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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 Weight: ca. 3.5-5 kg (male); ca. 2.5-4 kg (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 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. The bill is yellow, with a pinkish-brown tip. The irises are white. Juveniles are all dark-grey.

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 reach 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.

Photos

ADULT

Sex unknown

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

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

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

Lateral comparison 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]

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]

Food, Diet

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

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]

These pages are largely based on our own observations and those of our contributors. The structure of these bird pages is explained HERE. For more salient facts on any bird species please refer to a field guide.

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