Midway Shearwater

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Midway Shearwater
Systematics
Class : Birds (aves)
Order : Tubular noses (Procellariiformes)
Family : Petrels (Procellariidae)
Genre : Shearwater ( Puffinus )
Type : Midway Shearwater
Scientific name
Puffinus bryani
Pyle , Welch & Fleischer , 2011

The Midway Shearwater ( Puffinus bryani ) is a rare seabird from the genus puffinus within the family of Petrel (Procellariidae). The species was discovered in 1963, but not scientifically described until 2011 on the basis of genetic analyzes. The art epithet honors Edwin Horace Bryan, Jr. (1898–1985), a curator at the Bernice P. Bishop Museum . The Midway Shearwater represents the first rewritten species of bird in the United States and the Hawaiian Islands since the white-cheeked honeycreeper in 1974.

features

The holotype , a male, was on 18 February 1963 Sand Iceland in the Midway Islands caught and first as little shearwater ( Puffinus assimilis identified). Only Robert C. Fleischer from the Center for Conservation and Evolutionary Genetics was able to prove beyond doubt through a genetic and morphological analysis that it was a new species, which was then described as Puffinus bryani . The specimen has a ridge length of 25.2 mm, a barrel length of 34.7 mm, a wing length of 174 mm and a tail length of 71 mm. The top is solid slate gray. The exposed feathers (including the umbrella feathers and the older body feathers) are bleached brown. The underside is white, with the exception of the slate black coloration of the sides of the chest and the lower flanks. The under tail-coverts are mostly black with 3 to 5 mm long white tips on the shorter side feathers. The reins, the ears and the stripes above the eyes are white. The undersides of the outer hand wings are dark. The legs are blue, the outer edge of the barrel is black. The underside of the flippers is flesh-colored, the beak is black and the iris is brown.

Distribution, way of life and status

The distribution and way of life of the Midway Shearwater are unknown. Following the discovery of the holotype in 1963, a similar shearwater, believed to represent this species, was photographed alive in the winter of 1991/1992. Since then there have been observations of shearwaters in the Ogasawara Islands , who were also identified as Midway shearwaters in 2011. In 2014 the Midway Shearwater was included in the IUCN Red List in the critically endangered category. In February 2015, 10 specimens were discovered in a breeding area on the island of Higashi-jima.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Chikara 2011. Little-known Asian bird: Possible records of the newly described Bryan's Shearwater Puffinus bryani in Japan . In: Birding ASIA 16: S 86-88

literature

  • Peter Pyle, Andreanna J. Welch and Robert C. Fleischer: A New Species of Shearwater (Puffinus) Recorded from Midway Atoll, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands . In: The Condor, issue 113, 3rd quarter: p. 518-527. 2011

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