Gray-backed Storm-Petrel (Garrodia nereis)

Identification & Behavior: ~17 cm (7.5 in). The Gray-backed Storm-Petrel has a blackish head that turns gray toward the upperparts, rump, uppertail coverts and tail. The tail is gray on top and blackish on the underside. The black throat and breast contrast sharply with the white rest of the underparts. The underwings are white with black bordering on the wing’s leading and trailing edges. In flight, the Gray-backed Storm-Petrel has underparts similar to those of the White-bellied Storm-Petrel, but the latter has a gray rump and upperside of its tail.

Status: The Gray-backed Storm-Petrel is known in Peru from a single individual photographed 12 nautical miles off the Coast of El Callao, Lima.

Name in Spanish: Golondrina de Mar Subantártica.

Sub-species: Gray-backed Storm-Petrel (Garrodia nereis) (Gould 1841).

Meaning of Name: Garrodia: Genus named in honor of Alfred Henry Garrod (1846-1879) English zoologist. nereis: sea-nymph, daughter of the sea-god Nereus.

See more of the Family Oceanitidae