Today’s post is brought to you by Garrett MacDonald - today seemed like the most appropriate day for him to get a chance to write about part of our day!
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When Rose and I figured out we’d be doing godwit surveys on Chiloé Island last winter, I immediately knew there was one bird in particular I really wanted to see. It’s called the Pincoya Storm-Petrel. Being what’s called a cryptic species, meaning that it’s been hiding in plain sight for decades since the first explorers and scientists began studying the biology of southern Chile, it was only officially described as its own species about five years ago. It’s remarkably similar to another species, the Wilson’s Storm-Petrel, with a few differences in plumage that are best seen with an individual in the hand, which only happened recently when a group of biologists captured a few birds at sea to follow up on some photographs taken by birders of abnormally-plumaged individuals. In the hand, the Pincoya looks nothing like the Wilson’s, and there are also some cool behavioral differences regarding its foraging style. Surveys in the last few years have found that within its small range (the ocean waters between Chiloé Island, where we work, and the Chilean mainland) it is normally the most common seabird. And it’s nest has still never been found!
Well, today was a good day, because we saw the Pincoya - actually, three of them - while on the car ferry from the island to the mainland. We almost didn’t get out of the car to scan the ocean due to pea soup fog, but I’m sure glad we did! The fog parted just enough in the middle of the channel to see the storm-petrels, as well as a feeding frenzy of gulls, terns, and sea lions. So fun to see this nearly mythical bird, with a world population of maybe a couple thousand, that lives in just one part of the channel between Chiloé and the mainland. In Chilean folklore, the Pincoya is a female “water spirit” of the Chilotan Seas. “The Pincoya is said to have long blonde hair, be of incomparable beauty, be cheerful and sensual, and rise from the depths of the sea” (Wikipedia). The name was chosen in the hopes that it would garner local interest in the species and its conservation, and I hope it works!