Giant Petrel
Macronectes giganteus
Macronectes halli
Giant petrels is a genus, Macronectes, from the family Procellariidae and consist of two species. They are the largest birds from this family. Both species are restricted to the Southern Hemisphere, and though their distributions overlap greatly with both species breeding on the Prince Edward Islands, Crozet Islands, Kerguelen Islands, Macquarie Island and South Georgia, many Southern Giant Petrel nest further south, with colonies as far south as Antarctica. Giant petrels are aggressive predators and scavengers, which has led to the other common name they were known as, the Stinker, and the whalers used to call them gluttons.
Read more about Giant Petrel: Taxonomy, Description, Etymology, Conservation, Gallery
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“Through the dark cold and the empty desolation,
The wave cry, the wind cry, the vast waters
Of the petrel and the porpoise. In my end is my beginning.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)