Bryan's Shearwater

The Midway shearwater ( Puffinus bryani ) is a rare seabird of the genus Puffinus within the family of petrels ( Procellariidae ). The species was discovered in 1963, but until 2011 described on the basis of genetic analyzes scientifically. The specific epithet honors Edwin Horace Bryan, Jr. (1898-1985), a curator at the Bernice P. Bishop Museum. The Midway shearwaters represents the first newly described species in the United States and the Hawaiian Islands since the barnacle Dresses bird in 1974.

Features

The holotype, a male, was caught on sandy Iceland on 18 February 1963 in the Midway Islands and initially identified as a Little Shearwater ( Puffinus assimilis ). Only Robert C. Fleischer from the Center for Conservation and Evolutionary Genetics was able to prove beyond reasonable doubt by a genetic and morphological analysis that there is a new style, which was then described as Puffinus bryani. The specimen has a length of 25.2 mm beak First, a run 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 springs ( including the shield springs and the older body feathers ) are brown bleached. The underside is white, except for the slate- black coloration of the sides of the chest and the lower flanks. The coverts are mostly black with 3 to 5 mm long, white peaks on the shorter side springs. The reins, the ears and the eyes glancing over the area are white. The undersides of the outer primaries are dark. The legs are blue, the outer edge of the barrel is black. The underside of the flippers is a flesh color, the beak is black and the iris is brown.

Dissemination, lifestyle and status

Distribution and lifestyle of the Midway shearwater are unknown. After the discovery of the holotype in 1963, a similar shearwaters, which is believed that it represents this kind, photographed alive in winter 1991/1992. Since then, there has been on the Ogasawara Islands observations of shearwaters that were also identified in 2011 as Midway shearwaters.