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Grey-faced petrel (Pterodroma macroptera gouldie)
Contributed by Rosemary Tully of Whakatane Bird Rescue.
Photos by Phillipa Gardner
Other names: Great-winged petrel, Northern muttonbird
Maori name Oi
 In
New Zealand the Grey-faced petrel breeds in burrows on off-shore islands
and coastal headlands and cliffs of northern New Zealand.
The birds visit their colonies after dusk and leave again before dawn.
They start to breed from 6 to 7 years of age.
The petrels visit their colonies between March and April to clean out
their burrows and take part in pair bonding.
Egg laying starts from late June to the end of July, one white egg is
laid. The egg hatches
after 51 -58 days of incubation. (Heather & Robertson, 1996).
Both parents help in incubation and after the chick hatches the parents
guard the chick for the first few days.
The chick is then left alone and is visited every few days with food,
(sometimes this may mean a wait of 7 days or more before its next feed).
The parent has to travel many miles from their burrows in search of food,
which is regurgitated for the chick.
This may include squid, fish and crustaceans etc (Marchant & Higgins,
1993). The chick
continues to grow and fledging takes place from early December to the
end of January. The moult of the adult birds takes place from January
to April.
The petrels will often rest on arriving back to their burrows before going
to feed their chick as the photograph above shows.
The colonies on the mainland near to Ohope are very fragile.
For further information you can also see our conservation
feature on the Grey-faced petrel.
© Ohope Beach.info 2003
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