Archived News

Two papers by Kazuo Horikoshi (Japan) and Peter Pyle (USA) and their colleagues on the newly-discovered Bryan's Shearwater Puffinus bryani of the North Pacific were given in the Tropical Seabirds Special Paper Session on the first day of the 39th Annual Meeting of the Pacific Seabird Group, being held on Oahu, Hawaii, USA this week.

The Bryan's Shearwater found on Midway Atoll in 1991
Photograph by Reginald David

It looks like the World's latest seabird species breeds on Japan's Ogasawara (Bonin) Islands where six specimens including rat-depredated and desiccated carcasses have been found from 1997 to 2011, with breeding possible on up to four different islands in the group.  One bird was also photographed at sea in the general vicinity in 2009.

The race is now on to confirm breeding and eradicate the rats on those islands where they still occur.  The bird has been given the Japanese name of Ogasawara-Hime-Mizunagidori, which means Ogasawara Little Shearwater.

Meanwhile on the USA's Northwestern Hawaiian Islands of Sand, Midway Atoll and Tern, French Frigate Shoals listening devices are on the look-out for the species' call, following the discovery of a live bird in a rocky crevice on the former island in 1991.

It seems a threatened category of Critically Endangered will be in the offing once the shearwater's breeding sites are found on the Ogasawaras (a World Heritage Site, like Midway), with it being categorized as Data Deficient until then.

Click here for a newspaper article on the discovery and identification of Bryan's Shearwater Puffinus bryani in the Ogasawara Islands of Japan.

Selected References

Chikara, O. 2011.  Possible records of the newly described Bryan's Shearwater in Japan.  BirdingASIA 16: 86-88.

Horikoshi, K., Eda, M., Kawakami, K., Suzuki, H., Chiba, H. & Hiraoka, T. 2012.  Bryan's Shearwaters have survived in the Bonin Islands, northwestern Pacific!  PSG 2012 Hawaii abstracts.  Pacific Seabird Group Thirty-ninth Annual Meeting, Turtle Bay Resort, Haleiwa, Hawaii, USA.

Pyle, P., David, R., Eilerts, B.D., Amerson, B., McKown, M. & Borker, A. 2012.   Updated information on Bryan's Shearwaters (Puffinus bryani) in the North Pacific Ocean, with a look toward its conservation.  PSG 2012 Hawaii abstracts.  Pacific Seabird Group Thirty-ninth Annual Meeting, Turtle Bay Resort, Haleiwa, Hawaii, USA.

Pyle, P., J. Welch, A.J. & Fleischer, R.C. 2011.  A new species of shearwater (Puffinus) recorded from Midway Atoll, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.  Condor 113: 518-527.

With thanks to Peter Pyle for information.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 11 February 2012