Phalacrocorax carbo (Linneaus 1758; size: 170–102cm in length) is the extant great black cormorant. It feeds by diving for fish and swims with only its neck above the water. Pedal digit 4 is longer than 3. The feet are webbed. The skull is much shorter than the neck. Here it nests between Fregata and Catharacta.

Catharacta skua (Brunnich 1764, up to 56 cm long) is the extant great skua. An aggressive bird, the skua nests here between Phalcrocorax and Macronestes.

Macronectes giganteus (Gmelin 1789; 56 cm tall) is the extant Southern giant petrel, a member of the Procellariidae and Procellariformes (tubenoses). Here it nests between Catharacta and Morus. This soaring sea bird has a wingspan up to 2m. Note the naris has shifted anteriorly along with the maxilla.

Diomedea exhulans (Linneaus 1758; up to 1.35m long, 3.5m wingspan) is the extant wandering albatross with the longest wingspan of any living bird.

Morus bassanus (Linneaus 1758, extant; 100cm long) is the Northern gannet. Here the nasal has extended over the external naris to prevent water from entering the nose of this plunge diver. Secondary nostrils appear inside the mouth. The keratin at the jaw rims appears like teeth.

Puffinus newelli (Henshaw 1900; 33 cm in length is the extant Newell's shearwater, a small, pelagic (ocean-going) bird. Here it nests with the giant, toothed pelagic bird, Pelagornis.

Calonectris leucomelas (Matthews and Iredale 1915; originally Puffinus leucomelas Temminck 1836; 48cm length, 122 cm wingspan) is the extant streaked shearwater, a long distance tubenose migrant that nests in burrows and lays a single white egg.

Pelagornis chilensis (Lartet 1857, Mayr and Rubilar-Rogers 2010; Miocene; MNHN SGO.PV 1061) is an extinct giant soaring bird related to the shearwater, Puffinus. Bony, not true teeth, developed along the jaw margins. The external naris was divided by bone.

Below: Giant birds and giant pterosaurs compared to scale. The largest birds and pterosaurs are/were flightless.

Brunnich MT 1764. Entomologia. Godiche, Kopenhagen.

Gmelin JF 1789. Caroli a Linné ... Systema Naturae per Regna Tria Naturae, Secundum Classes, Ordines, Genera, Species, Cum Characteribus, Differentiis, Synonymis, Locis. Editio Decima Tertia, Aucta, Reformata/ cura Jo. Frid. Gmelin. Volume 1, part 3. Lipsiae: Impensis Georg. Emanuel. Beer.

Henshaw HW 1900. Description of a new Shearwater from the Hawaiian Islands. Auk 27:246–247.

Huey RB and Deutsch C 2016. How frigate birds soar around the doldrums. Science 353 (6294):26–27. 

Lartet E 1857. Note sur un hum´erus fossile d’oiseau, attribu ´e `a un tr `es-grand palmip`ede de la section des Longipennes. Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des S´eances de l’Acad´emie des Sciences (Paris) 44:736–741.

Linnaeus C 1758. Systema naturæ per regna tria naturæ, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Tomus I. Editio decima, reformata.

Matthews GM and Iredale T 1915. On some petrels from the North-East Pacific Ocean. Ibis. 57(3): 572-609.

Mayr G and Rubilar-Rogers D 2010. Osteology of a new giant bony-toothed bird from the Miocene of Chile, with a revision of the taxonomy of Neogene Pelagornithidae. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 30(5):1313-1340

Temminck CJ 1835. Coup-d'oeil sur la faune des iles de la Sonde et de l'empire du Japon: discours préliminaire, destiné à servir d'introduction à la Faune du Japon.

wiki/Macronectes
wiki/Pelagornis
wiki/Gannet
wiki/Great_skua
wiki/Great_cormorant
wiki/Calonectris and wiki/Streaked_shearwater
wiki/wandering albatross