Contributor
Date
Location
- Age
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- Sex
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Observation details
MEGA: First spotted and photos by Brian McCloskey. I was one of the observers present when he announced the bird. He was able to get video of the bird digiscoping. From this video we/I was able to grab stills. A couple definitive points can be seen from the stills and photos. 1-The stills in particular allow the extent of the white on the underside of both wings primaries to be seen very well. It extends well towards the feather tips and forms a tight acute pointed triangle. Very clean. 2- My experience with this species has made me comfortable with the body shape as a good fieldwork. The head is noticabley smaller, the bill is more slender and the neck is more extended than Cory's. The wings are more slender. 3- The flight or jizz is different than Cory's. When flying the birds cadence is faster with sharper flaps at ~double the rate of Cory's. More Great Shearwater like. With this flapping it does not glide as much nor wrist turn or manoeuvre like Cory's. Also with sharper wing action and less glide manoeuvring as was very apparent with the Cory's present. Overall this species flies faster more active than the Cory's slower precise type turning. Conditions at the time of the sighting were good. The vantage had the light at our position and off the the right. the light did not over expose the underwing. As the bird moves and flaps the extent of the white mentioned remains consistent even when not directly facing the sun. I have viewed this species a number of times both in Massachusetts where it is also rare and in the Mediterranean. In the second area around Greece I was able to see this bird often, photograph and have long looks at many individuals. Cory's I am very experienced with mostly on the USA side as a research observer for seabird studies and from my numerous encounters with them in my own vessel.
Technical information
- Camera
- Microphone
- Accessories
- Original file size
- 107.57 MB