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The grey-faced petrel is an-all dark oceanic seabird with a short but powerful deeply hooked beak. At sea, it is fast and graceful with a high soaring powerful flight on long narrow wings.

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Grey-faced petrels breed around northern New Zealand, on islands as well as a few mainland headlands. The birds begin breeding in the middle of winter, but many chicks don’t fledge until the height of summer.

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The grey-faced petrel is sometimes referred to as the northern muttonbird, and some iwi still exercise their rights to harvest the petrel chicks between mid-November and mid-December each year.

 

Grey-faced petrels are making a comeback on the Tutukaka Coast as the numbers of rats and other pests has decreased.