Sooty Shearwater (Ardenna grisea)
Great Grey Shrike (Lanius excubitor)
Dark-bellied, long-billed shearwater with small head and elongated body. Wings long, narrow and pointed, with pale patches/bands underneath framed in dark base colour of body. Flight fast and powerful. In strong winds hand held pointing slightly backwards. The pale underwing is clearly visible in good light, but the whole bird often seems completely dark. Only shearwater in the region with completely dark underparts, except from dark individuals of the much smaller, and short-winged, Balearic Shearwater. The latter also shows deeper belly and less deep chest. At long distance, and/or bad weather, Sooty Shearwater may be confused with Arctic Skua or even young Gannets. Differs from Gannets by size, shorter neck and no white rump patch. Told from Skuas by bursting series of stiff wing-beats with alternating glides.
Sound:Mostly heard at breeding ground. A peculiar, rhythmic, coarse moaning, with a disyllabic attack, followed by a deeper, cooing "in-breath".
Song:
Distribution:
Wikipedia: map (se also Xeno-canto below)
Ecology:Birdlife ecology
Links:
Observation.org Latest observations
Image search Flickr NB! May give other species
CCCC-photo:pablo_caceres_c, Licence,Link.
CC-photo:Jon. D. Anderson, Licence,Link.
Sounds:Creative Commons,www.xeno-canto.org,sjonnoh,http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
Light grey upperparts, black wings and tail with white patches, white underparts and throat. Broad, black eyestripe not reaching above highest point of bill. Bill long and medium heavy (not as heavy as in Lesser GS). White patch at base of primaries varies according to subspecies. Black part of tail most narrow at base. Juveniles less pure in colour, with faintly barred underparts and buff fringes to greater coverts.
Sound:Alarm call very harsh, nasal and noisy. Dry and not as deep or resonant as crows. Song varied. During breeding season a varied subdued song is heard from both sexes. Territorial call before breeding starts is simple, loud and resonant. Consisting of pleasant sounding single or double syllables, with well defined pauses and peculiar harmonics.
Territorial call/song:
Distribution:
Xeno-canto: map
Ecology:Birdlife ecology
Links:
Observation.org Latest observations
Image search Flickr NB! May give other species
CCSounds:Recorded by Jarek Matusiak,http://www.xeno-canto.org ,CC license