A friend of mine in the UK who is a pretty experienced birder went to South China around 2 months ago, while he was on a ferry on South China Sea near Zhuhai, he encountered 3 small birds, which he recognised as Storm Petrels.
This is his version of the encounter:
"Whilst out on the South China Sea – not in Hong Kong waters I think as we were not too far from the Chinese city of Zhuhai - we encountered 3 smallish birds which flew alongside our ferry. The most noticeable feature of all 3, which were clearly the same species, was that they all had white rumps. The birds, which I thought I ‘recognised’ as Petrels were very dark brown in colour apart from what appeared to be a lighter line of a mark on the wing which stretched from the body to part way along the wing. This colour was nothing like the white of the rump, more a grey type of dullness."
He is wondering could they be Wilson's Storm Petrels?? My first thought about the white rumps was House or Pacific Swifts, but his description of a light line marking on the wing does not really match...I am not sure if there are any records of this species in or near South China Sea before, so I thought I should ask more experienced birders. If there is a chance these were Wilson's, it will be a species worth looking for in future boat trips??
Cheers!!
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Last edited by kmatthew at 23/06/2008 18:16 ]
