Mottled petrel

Mottled petrel
File:Pterodroma inexpectata.jpg
Conservation status
Near Threatened (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Procellariiformes
Family:	Procellariidae
Genus:	Pterodroma
Species:	P. inexpectata
Binomial name
Pterodroma inexpectata (J.R. Forster, 1844)

The mottled petrel (Pterodroma inexpectata) is a species of seabird and a member of the gadfly petrels. The bird is 33–35 cm in size, with a 74–82 cm wingspan.

This species is highly pelagic, rarely approaching land, except to nest and rear young. The mottled petrel feeds mostly on fish and squid, with some crustaceans taken. It is a transequatorial migrant, breeding in New Zealand and some of the lesser islands, then moving to the Bering Sea, concentrating in the Gulf of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands.

The mottled petrel uses burrows and rock crevices to nest in. It was formerly more numerous than today. The species' numbers have been and continue to be affected by predation by introduced mammals.

References

Media related to Pterodroma inexpectata at Wikimedia Commons

• "National Geographic" Field Guide to the Birds of North America ISBN 0-7922-6877-6
• Seabirds, an Identification Guide by Peter Harrison, (1983) ISBN 0-7470-1410-8
• Handbook of the Birds of the World Vol 1, Josep del Hoyo editor, ISBN 84-87334-10-5
• "National Audubon Society" The Sibley Guide to Birds, by David Allen Sibley, ISBN 0-679-45122-6

External links

• Mottled petrel profile - Birdweb.org