Southern giant petrel
Image copyright by Mark A. Chappell
These huge ungainly birds have an ugly reputation for carrion-feeding and for preying on seal pups, penguin chicks, and other slow-moving prey. They also have a nasty habit of spraying intruders with incredibly acrid regurgitated stomach oil. Nevertheless, giant petrels are excellent parents to their solitary chicks. This young bird, just a few weeks (left) or days (right) old, is sitting between the large feet of its parent. I took the photos above at Palmer Station, a U.S. research base on Anvers Island off the Antarctic Peninsula, the bird following our ship (below) was in the Drake Passage.
