Species
GENUS
- KingdomAnimalia
- PhylumChordata
- ClassAves
- OrderProcellariiformes
- FamilyProcellariidae
Habitatmarine
Observations recorded183,111
via GBIF
Museum specimens
- Specimen records
- 30
- Family
- Procellariidae
- Collections
- MVZ, NMV, KU, UMZC, SAMA, FMNH
- Recorded in
- Chile, Australia, Antarctica, Peru, South Africa, Canada, New Zealand, Falkland Islands
~8 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Giant petrels form a genus, Macronectes, from the family Procellariidae, which consists of two living and one extinct species. They are the largest birds in this family, and the only member that is capable of walking on land. The genus is likely restricted to the Southern Hemisphere. Giant petrels are extremely aggressive predators and scavengers, inspiring another common name, the stinker. Seamen and whalers also referred to the giant petrel as the molly-hawk, gong, glutton bird and nelly.
Description
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Macronectes” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.