John Avise is back with a batch of bird photos! You can enlarge the photos by clicking them, and John’s captions and text are indented.
Pelagic Birds
Once or twice every year, I go on a day trip to search for pelagic (open-ocean) birds off the coast here in Southern California. Typically, this involves going on a three-hour “whale watching” boat, which ventures about 10 miles out onto the sea. Any open-ocean birds that we encounter on such trips are extremely difficult to photograph because the boat is rocking, the birds seldom allow a close approach, and many of the look-alike pelagic species are dressed in drab blacks and whites. Nevertheless, sometimes I get lucky and get decent photos of various avian species (and of course whales) that seldom can be seen from shore. This week’s post shows several pelagic bird species that I have managed to photograph over the years.
Black-vented Shearwater (Puffinus opisthomelas):
Black-vented Shearwater flying:
Ashy Storm Petrel (Hydrobates homochroa):
Brown Booby (Sula leucogaster):
Brown Booby flying:
Buller’s Shearwater (Ardenna bulleri):
Buller’s Shearwater flying:
Common Tern (Sterna hirundo):
Northern Fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis), dark morph:
Northern Fulmar flying:
Pigeon Guillemot (Cepphus columba):
Rhinoceros Auklet (Cerorhinca monocerata):
Pink-footed Shearwater (Ardenna creatopus):
Pink-footed Shearwater flying:
Sooty Shearwater (Ardenna grisea):
Sooty Shearwater flying:
Welcome back! I do now wonder why the pelagic species are only black, brown, or white. Why not be colorful?
Colorfulness usually indicates a species in which males attract females with their appearance, but don’t pair up long-term or help rear the young. Possibly, life is so harsh for pelagic seabirds that they always pair up and rear young together. (John, did I get this right??)
I like your provisional interpretation, Susan. It is true that most pelagic seabirds tend to pair up long-term and rear chicks together. But so too do some Boobies (Blue-footed and Red-footed are examples of pelagic species in which males court females with their colorful feet). So, as always seems to be the case in biology, trait variation is ubiquitous and exceptions apply to almost any rule.
Simply splendid – ahhh.
What great photos! Pelagic birds are so alluringly enigmatic, cruising the vast spaces. Thank you for this virtual trip.
You’ve captured a lot of pelagic birds over the years! I can understand the difficulty in capturing these particular birds, and I can tell from the photos that the light is often subdued, making sharp shots even more difficult in a boat setting. But kudos for your efforts, most of these birds were new to me.