Mystery bird call from Secretary Island, Fiordland

[Colin Miskelly]

Kia ora

The following Te Papa blog contains an embedded sound file of a mystery bird call recorded at night on Secretary Island in March last year.

As explained in the blog, I suspected the call to be from a grey-backed storm petrel chick. However, a visit to the site in February this year did not result in any nests being found.

The species making the call remains a mystery, and I am hoping that publishing the sound file will lead to some suggestions:

https://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2020/05/18/little-bird-big-country-searching-for-nesting-storm-petrels-in-fiordland/

Cheers
Colin

[philbattley]

I can see (hear?) why everyone had trouble with that call. Very mysterious!

[Neil Fitzgerald]

Hi Colin. Is that the entire recording of the 'call'?

[Colin Miskelly]

Hi Neil

There are several similar sequences recorded on different nights at the same location. All sound much the same.

Ngā mihi
Colin