Cape Petrel

About the Cape Petrel

The pintado petrel (Daption capense), also called the Cape petrel, or Cape fulmar, is a common seabird of the Southern Ocean from the family Procellariidae. It is the only member of the genus Daption, and is allied to the fulmarine petrels and the giant petrels. It is an abundant seabird, with an estimated population of around 2 million.

The pintado petrel was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Procellaria capensis. Linnaeus cited the "white and black spotted peteril" that had been described and illustrated in 1747 by the English naturalist George Edwards in the second volume of his A Natural History of Uncommon Birds. The pintado petrel is now the only species placed in the genus Daption, introduced in 1826 by English naturalist James Francis Stephens. The genus name Daption is an anagram of the Portuguese name "Pintado" which was given to the species by navigators because of its pied plumage. Pintado is Portuguese and Spanish for "painted". The specific epithet capense signifies the Cape of Good Hope, the locality where the type specimen was collected. The word petrel... Wikipedia →