Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index The Procellariidae family are a group of seabirds in the bird order Procellariiformes, which also includes the Albatross family, Diomedeidae, the storm-petrels, Hydrobatidae, and the diving petrels, Pelacanoididae. The family Procellariidae is the main radiation of medium-sized 'true petrels', characterised by united nostrils with medium septum, and a long outer functional primary. It is dominant in the Southern Oceans, but not so in the Northern Hemisphere. It includes: The fulmar group The huge giant petrels, genus Macronectes, which are convergent with the albatrosses. The true fulmars, genus Fulmaris Antarctic Petrel, Thalassoica antarctica Cape Petrel, Daption capense Snowy Petrel, Pagodroma nivea. The prionss, genus Pachyptila. A specialised group of six very numerous species, all southern. They have a small, fulmar-like form and filter-feed on zooplankton. The gadfly petrels. These are large and agile short-billed petrels in the genus Pterodroma. Shearwaters in the genera Calonectris, Puffinus and Procellaria. The three species in the last genus are named as petrels Petrels of indeterminate relationships the four Bulweria species Blue Petrel, Halobaena caerula Kerguelen Petrel Lugensa brevirostris Tahiti Petrel Pseudobulweria rostrata. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.