Giant petrel

Giant petrel Temporal range: Pliocene[1] – recent PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Southern giant petrel juvenile
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Procellariiformes
Family:	Procellariidae
Genus:	Macronectes Richmond, 1905
Type species
Procellaria gigantea Gmelin, 1789
Species
Macronectes giganteus Southern giant petrel Macronectes halli Northern giant petrel Macronectes tinae Tina's giant petrel

Giant petrels form a genus, Macronectes, from the family Procellariidae, which consists of two living and one extinct species. They are the largest birds in this family. The living species are restricted to the Southern Hemisphere, and though their distributions overlap significantly, with both species breeding on the Prince Edward Islands, Crozet Islands, Kerguelen Islands, Macquarie Island, and South Georgia, many southern giant petrels nest farther south, with colonies as far south as Antarctica. Giant petrels are extremely aggressive predators and scavengers, inspiring another common name, the stinker.^[2] Seamen and whalers used to call the giant petrel as the molly-hawk, gong, glutton bird and nelly.^[3] They are the only member of their family that is capable of walking on land.^[4]