Memorandum to: The Director of Birds Australia

From: Birds Australia Rarities Committee (BARC)

Date: 11^th January 2007

Voting Members: Mike Carter Andrew Silcocks

Rohan Clarke Glenn Holmes

John Hatch Jamie Matthew

Tony Palliser Danny Rogers

Cc. Ron Johnstone

Submission No 471: Rockhopper Penguin Eudyptes chrysocome at Two Peoples Bay, WA, 6^th January 2006. Submitted by: Mike Barth.

Verdict: Accepted

This submission relates to a bird discovered by visitors at Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve, WA on the 6^th January 2006. The bird was the focus of much attention as it was on the beach close to the visitor’s centre. It was captured by CALM (Conservation and Land Management) staff and relocated the same day to Breaksea Island in King George Sound, Albany.

This submission relies entirely on photographic evidence and identification is straightforward as all diagnostic characters are revealed in the photographs and indicate this bird to be an immature commencing a moult. The relatively fine bill is diagnostic, as is the pattern visible on the underside of the flipper. It appears to be of the race mosleyi based on the total absence of a red fleshy margin to the bill and the broad dark leading edge to the underside of the flipper.

Historically there are a number of records for this species from the Australian mainland but this is the first to be accepted by BARC.

Selected Bibliography:

· Marchant, S. &. Higgins P.J., (Eds), (1990), Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds, Volume 1 (part A), Ratites to Petrels, Oxford University Press, Melbourne.

Tony Palliser

Chairman, Birds Australia Rarities Committee