Solomon Petrel

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Solomon Petrel
Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club (20445944685) .jpg

Solomon Petrel ( Pseudobulweria becki )

Systematics
Class : Birds (aves)
Order : Tubular noses (Procellariiformes)
Family : Petrels (Procellariidae)
Genre : Pseudobulweria
Type : Solomon Petrel
Scientific name
Pseudobulweria becki
( Murphy , 1928)

The Solomon Petrel ( Pseudobulweria becki ) is a rare species of sea bird from the genus Pseudobulweria in the petrel family (Procellaridae). It was known for a long time only from two specimens caught in 1928 and 1929 before it was rediscovered in 2007.

features

The Solomon Petrel is very similar to the Tahitian Petrel ( Pseudobulweria rostrata ) and can hardly be distinguished from it in flight. The body length is 29 cm. The tail and wings are about 15 percent smaller than the Tahitian petrel, and the body size is about 25 percent smaller. The beak is also thinner than that of the Tahitian petrel. The head, throat and top are dark brown with a slight sheen. The lower wings are also dark except for a white band that varies in clarity depending on the individual. The underside of the plumage is white. The wings are straight and long. The voice is blank.

Discovery and rediscovery

The first known specimen was a female collected on January 6, 1928 by Rollo Beck , after whom the species was scientifically named, east of New Ireland and north of Buka , Papua New Guinea . The second specimen, a male, was caught northeast of Rendova in the Solomon Islands on May 18, 1929 by Hannibal Hamlin (a descendant of the eponymous Vice President of Abraham Lincoln and successor to Beck on the Whitney South Sea Expedition ) . Since then, the species has been believed to be extinct, although in the following decades there have been repeated sightings of unidentified petrels near the Solomon Islands and in the Bismarck Archipelago . In 2003, the Israeli ornithologist Hadoram Shirihai , an internationally renowned petrel expert , sighted three specimens off the coast of New Ireland, which may represent Solomon petrels. In July and August 2007 he finally succeeded in the officially confirmed rediscovery. In four places in the coastal waters of New Ireland he observed 30 specimens in one day and 16 individuals at a time during a week. Cape St. George at the southern end of New Ireland proved to be the preferred place to stay, where the Solomon Petrel outnumbered the sympathetic Tahitian petrel. In 2008 there were further sightings near the island of Bougainville between New Ireland and New Britain . In 2010 two specimens were found at Efate in the Vanuatu Archipelago. In 2006 a petrel was photographed east of the Great Barrier Reef , which may also represent this species. The largest collection of Solomon Petrels to date with over 100 individuals was observed in the south of New Ireland in 2012.

Systematics

The Solomon Petrel was described as Pterodroma becki by Robert Cushman Murphy in 1928 . Then it was long considered a subspecies of the Tahitian petrel ( P. rostrata becki ) within the genus Pterodroma . In 2004 it was recognized as an independent species and in 2012 a DNA analysis confirmed a closer relationship to the Macgillivray petrel ( Pseudobulweria macgillivrayi) .

status

The IUCN classifies the Solomon Petrel in the category " critically endangered ". BirdLife International assumes a decreasing population and estimates the population of adult birds at 50 to 250 specimens. The main threat comes from the devastation of the breeding grounds by introduced cats and rats.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Robert C. Murphy: Birds collected during the Whitney South Sea Expedition. IV. In: American Museum Novitates, Number 322, 1928
  2. ^ Robert C. Murphy & Jessie M. Penoyer: Larger Petrels of the Genus Pterodroma In: American Museum Novitates, Number 1580, 1952
  3. ↑ Shirihai, H. 2008. Rediscovery of Beck's Petrel Pseudobulweria becki, and other observations of tubenoses from the Bismarck archipelago, Papua New Guinea. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 128: 3-16.
  4. ^ BirdLife International: Beck's pulls in at the petrel station
  5. ↑ Brooke, Michael (2004): Albatrosses and Petrels across the World . Oxford University Press, Oxford, New York. ISBN 0-19-850125-0
  6. ↑ Gangloff et al .: The complete phylogeny of Pseudobulweria, the most endangered seabird genus: systematics, species status and conservation implications In: Conservation Genetics (2012) 13: 39-52

literature

  • Bird, JP 2012. Targeted searches to identify nesting grounds of Beck's Petrel Pseudobulweria becki . Notornis 59: 189-193.
  • Brooke, Michael (2004): Albatrosses and Petrels across the World. Oxford University Press, Oxford, New York. ISBN 0-19-850125-0 , pp. 317-318

Web links

Commons : Solomon Petrel ( Pseudobulweria becki )  - Collection of images, videos and audio files