Common Diving Petrels
Common Diving Petrels are really amazing birds. They inhabit the Falkland Islands and other small islands above the Antarctic Convergence where they live in burrows on steep slopes with tussock grass but occasionally on flat grounds.
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There are several species of Diving Petrels, including Magellanic, Common, South Georgian, and Peruvian. The Common Diving Petrel is very closely related to the South Georgian Diving Petrel. The only way to tell them apart is that the Common is slightly bigger, that they have different bill shapes, and that the South Georgian Diving Petrel has a black line on its leg, but the Common does not.
Common Diving Petrels are tiny birds compared to other sea birds. They are dark bluish-grey on their back and whitish grey on their belly, much like a penguin. They are usually about 8-10 inches long with a wing span of about 13-15 inches. Sometimes, when you see a Common Diving Petrel at sea, they almost look like a big butterfly because of the way that they beat their wings.
On our Antarctica cruise we have seen plenty of these amazing birds (both the South Georgian and the Common Diving Petrel). We also got to see some that had hit the ship at night. One morning at breakfast, another passenger asked us if we wanted to see the Diving Petrels. There were about four of them, one of which we found and released. Common Diving Petrels are really fascinating birds and I hope to see more on our ship soon!