Giant Petrel - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

The giant petrels are two large seabirds from the genus Macronectes. Long considered to be conspecific (they were not established as separate species until 1966), the two species, the Southern Giant Petrel, Macronectes giganteus, and Northern Giant Petrel, Macronectes halli, are considered with the two fulmars, Fulmarus, to form a distinct sub-group within Procellariidae, and if you add in the Antarctic Petrel, Cape Petrel, and the Snow Petrel, they form a separate group from the rest of the family.