A new species of seabird

[Neil Fitzgerald]

Peter Harrison, British seabird expert and currently in Chile with kiwis Chris Gaskin and Karen Baird, has asked me to post the attached seabird news release.

A New Species of Seabird_Peter Harrison Feb 2011.pdf

(743.42 KiB) Downloaded 3501 times

[MJB]

Another one for Chris! Hope he's in NZ when we visit in late 2011 - that's another pint I owe him!
MJB

[Ian Southey]

OK.

So how does this fit in with the usually forgotten subspecies of Wilson's Storm Petrel Oceanites oceanites magellanicus (= chilensis) breeding on the Falkland Islands and Tierra del Fueugo and wintering off the west coast of South America rather than in the northern hemisphere? It is a smaller form, the two skins in Te Papa have whitish underwing coverts and one of them has white feathering on the belly. Enquiries to AMNH showed a variably white belly is typical of this form so it could look just like the birds pictured and should be in about the same place.

I'm not saying the Puerto Montt Storm Petrel is not new but I'd like to know more before I accept it.

Ian

[Graham Saunders]

Ian, blood samples for DNA analysis have been collected. That should determine how this form of petrel is related to others:

http://travelblog.zeco.com/author/peterharrison


I learnt something today; I'd presumed that Harrison was American. Probably because Peterson wrote the foreword in Seabirds.

[Mike O'Keeffe]

Greetings all,

I'm a new member visiting your forum from Ireland. Just joined to add some comments as this subject is dear to my heart.

...it all started at the end of Jan 2009 when a group of us were on a pelagic off Valparaiso, Chile. We were watching small, dainty storm-petrels and were puzzled by their appearance. One or two for example showed small amounts of white smudging on the belly. We suspected they were race chilensis Wilson's Storm-petrels though we didn't know that for sure as the literature was poor enough. Primarily, our curiousity was sufficiently pricked at this point that we made sure to scrutinize every single storm-petrel thereafter.

Flash forward to Feburary 4th, 2009 as our boat departed Puerto Montt, Chile. A couple of stormies appeared below the bow. Seamus Enright snaped a burst of shots and immediately checked them for any tell-tale white smudging - were they more chilensis types? Remarkably they are showing a massive amount of white on the vent – apparently wrapping right around to the rump. He informed the rest of us of what he had found and we got busy trying to document what we are seeing. There was nothing more we could do to clarify the identify of these birds during our trip so we left it at that.

After returning to Ireland I dug out my shots and posted the following message to the Arizona Frontiers of Birding Listserve.

http://listserv.arizona.edu/cgi-bin/wa? ... 1&T=0&P=61

This is the first publically documented reference to these birds as far as I am aware.

Alvaro Jaramillo (author of the Birds of Chile) was particularly interested and helped us ID our Valparaiso petrels as chilensis, as we had suspected. He also took an interest in the Puerto Montt birds and things progressed from there. We eventually published the note in Dutch Birding, leading to more sightings last year.
What was perhaps most interesting from our research was the discovery that Peter Harrison was already familiar with these birds. He had apparently encountered them many years before while operating in the area. He even had them in the hand! He said he had assumed they were chilensis but didn’t publish anything on them at the time.
So in a remarkable turn of events I am delighted to hear that Peter has taken a team to Chile to sort these birds out for once and for all. I look forward to reading the team's final analysis.

I guess it just goes to show what can really be discovered even on a straightforward foreign birding trip. It also demonstrates the power of the internet for the communication of ideas and experience.

Once again, greetings, and sorry for momentarily hijacking your forum. I have a sister living in NZ so I might linger a while longer

Regards

Mike O’Keeffe
Ireland

[Neil Fitzgerald]

Once again, greetings, and sorry for momentarily hijacking your forum. I have a sister living in NZ so I might linger a while longer

An interesting addition to this story, Mike, and not hijacking at all! You are more than welcome here.

Thanks,
Neil.

[Chris Gaskin]

Hi all,

Karen's take on this expedition has been posted on Forest & Bird's website, go to: http://blog.forestandbird.org.nz/new-ch ... rm-petrel/

Since our previous post on this subject preparation of the paper complete with necessary biometric data, behavioural notes and supporting images is well under way. At this stage we are delighted to announce the author team for the paper detailing this exciting seabird development: Peter Harrison, Michel Sallaberry, Chris Gaskin, Karen Baird, Alvaro Jamarillo, Shirley Metz, Mark Pearman, Michael O’Keeffe, Jim Dowdell; Gerard Lillie; Kieran Fahy; Seamus Enright; Jeff Gilligan.

We firmly believe that by adopting this collaborative approach, all those involved in this fascinating story of discovery will be fully and duly recognized.

Chris

[MJB]

Chris and Karen,
Rather you than me in that tiny dinghy! Fingers crossed for the DNA results...
Yours aye,
Mike Blair & Sue Fleming

[Chris Gaskin]

Hi all,

A small correction on my previous post:

Alvaro's name is spelt Jaramillo - 'r' before 'm'.

Chris