First N.Z. live sighting of bird

Press, 24 May 1980, Page 6

First N.Z. live sighting of bird

The first live sighting in New Zealand waters of a North Atlantic (Mediterranean) shearwater has been made off the coast of Banks Peninsula.

The curator of vertebrates at die Canterbury Museum (Mr G. A. Tunnicliffe) saw the bird in June last year while working on the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries research trawler W. J. Scott. It has taken since then to identify the bird positively as a North Atlantic shearwater.

Although Mr' Tunnicliffe's was the first live sighting in New Zealand waters another 'North Atlantic shearwater was washed up dead at Foxton in the North Island in! 193'. 7 - ''• . -

The birds normally breed in southern Europe, on- the islands off north-east Africa, and on the islands in the Mediterranean.-,

Mr Tunnicliffe made several sightings of the bird from June 2 to June 9, between 50km an£ 80km

| south-east of Banks Peninsula.', His attention was drawn to the bird by its unusual; flight pattern, and the colouring Of its bill. It was a large, heavy-bodied shearwater, with ash-brown upper parts, clean white underparts, grey head, and a long, thick yellow bill with a dark tip. The bird he saw had a wingspan of about 112 cm. Mr Tunnicliffe said that the sighting had caused "quite a bit of excitement" among ornithologists. intends to publish a report on his sighting in the New Zealand Ornithological Society’s journal later this year. -?