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General Impression:
In many respects like a slim Cory’s Shearwater, with greyer head
plumage and faster flight action. Structure: A large shearwater, in general structured like a Cory’s Shearwater with long bowed wings. However, bill, head and body thought to be slimmer than Cory’s in the field. Photographs prove bill head and body were obviously slimmer than Cory’s. Note that Cory’s averages 46% heavier than Scopoli’s. Plumage: Head, neck and sides of breast, mantle and back: Milky chocolate brown, but paler and perhaps greyer than is normal in Cory’s. Rump: Coloured as mantle and back, but with white U-shape pattern at base of tail. Underparts: White. Upperwing: Primaries and secondaries dark brown. Coverts paler brown, but not as pale as mantle and back, with dark band diagonally across the arm Underwing: Thin brown leading edge. Coverts white. Secondaries and primaries brown save for the following; dark bordered white inner webbings to the primaries giving the impression of white ‘fingers’ extending along the primaries beyond the underwing coverts – diagnostic of Scopoli’s and obvious in photographs of the bird. Richard Gutiérez commented that the underwing pattern does not vary geographically. Killian Mullarney and others commented that Cory’s sometimes show a suggestion of short white ‘fingers’ penetrating the dark of the primaries, but not extensively as in our bird. Tail: Dark brown. Bill: Slim relative to Cory’s, yellowish with dark end; perhaps not as yellow as Cory’s. Eye: Small, black, positioned central front of head, just higher than bill. Legs: Barely visible completely tucked underneath tail. Flight: Similar to Cory’s, but less languid with somewhat faster wing beats making the bird ‘feel’ different from Cory’s, which often we see in similar circumstances. Flight expected to be noticeably different than Cory’s given structural differences. |