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Wedge-tailed shearwater

December 02, 2023

The wedge-tailed shearwater (Ardenna pacifica) is a medium-large shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. It is one of the shearwater species that is sometimes referred to as a muttonbird, like the sooty shearwater of New Zealand and the short-tailed shearwater of Australia. It is found throughout the tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans, roughly between latitudes 35°N and 35°S. It breeds on the islands off Japan, on the Islas Revillagigedo, the Hawaiian Islands, the Seychelles, the Northern Mariana Islands, and off Eastern and Western Australia.

Wedge-tailed shearwater
Pair "singing", Lady Elliot Island, Queensland, Australia
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Procellariiformes
Family: Procellariidae
Genus: Ardenna
Species:
A. pacifica
Binomial name
Ardenna pacifica
(Gmelin, JF, 1789)
  Nonbreeding
  Breeding
Synonyms

Procellaria pacifica (protonym) Puffinus pacificus

Taxonomy edit

The wedge-tailed shearwater was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the petrels in the genus Procellaria and coined the binomial name Procellaria pacifica.[2] Gmelin based his description on the "Pacific petrel" that had been described in 1785 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his book A General Synopsis of Birds.[3] The type locality was designated as the Kermadec Islands by Gregory Mathews in 1912.[4][5][6] The wedge-tailed shearwater is now one of seven species placed in the genus Ardenna that introduced in 1853 by Ludwig Reichenbach.[7][8] The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.[8] A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2022 found that the wedge-tailed shearwater was sister to Buller's shearwater.[9]

Description edit

 
The pale morph and dark morphs side by side

The wedge-tailed shearwater is the largest of the tropical shearwaters. The two colour morphs of the species are dark and pale; the pale morphs predominate in the North Pacific, the dark morph elsewhere. However, both morphs exist in all populations, and bear no relation to sex or breeding condition. The pale morph has grey-brown plumage on the back, head, and upper wing, and whiter plumage below. The darker morph has the same dark grey-brown plumage over the whole body. The species' common name is derived from the large, wedge-shaped tail, which may help the species glide. The bill is dark and legs are salmon pink, with the legs set far back on the body (in common with the other shearwaters) as an adaptation for swimming.

This species is related to the pan-Pacific Buller's shearwater, which differs much in colour pattern, but also has a wedge tail and a thin, black bill.[10][11] They make up the Thyellodroma group, a superspecies of the large shearwaters that were for a long time included in the genus Puffinus.[12][13]

Behaviour and ecology edit

Food and feeding edit

Wedge-tailed shearwaters feed pelagically on fish, squid, and crustaceans. Their diet is 66% fish, of which the most commonly taken is goatfish. The species was thought to mostly take food from surface feeding, but observations of feeding wedge-tails suggested that contact-dipping, where birds flying close to the surface snatch prey from the water was the most commonly used hunting technique. However, a 2001 study which deployed maximum depth recorders found that 83% of wedge-tails dived during foraging trips with a mean maximum depth of 14 m (46 ft) and that they could achieve a depth of 66 m (217 ft).[14]

Breeding edit

 
Egg, Muséum de Toulouse)

The wedge-tailed shearwater breeds in colonies on small tropical islands. Breeding seasons vary depending on location, with synchronised breeding seasons more common at higher latitudes. Northern Hemisphere birds begin breeding around February, and Southern Hemisphere birds begin around September. Wedge-tailed shearwaters display natal philopatry, returning to their natal colony to begin breeding at the age of four.

 
Chick in burrow, Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge

Wedge-tailed shearwaters are monogamous, forming a pair bond that lasts for several years. Divorce between pairs occurs after breeding seasons that end in failure. Nesting occurs either in burrows or sometimes on the surface under cover. Pairs call frequently as a pair, both to reinforce the pair bond and warn intruders away from their territory. Parents also call to their chicks. The call is long, with an inhaling component (OOO) and exhaling component (err); their Hawaiian name 'ua'u kani means moaning petrel. Both sexes participate in digging a burrow, or repairing the burrow from last year. Nesting burrows of other species are also used. The breeding season of the Bonin petrel in Hawaii is timed to avoid that of the wedge-tail; in years where Bonin petrel chicks are still in burrows when wedge-tails return to begin breeding, these chicks are killed or evicted. It attends these colonies nocturnally, although nonbreeding wedge-tails are often seen at the surface throughout the day and breeding birds rest outside their burrows before laying.

Both sexes undertake a prelaying exodus to build up energy reserves; this usually lasts around 28 days. A single egg is laid, if that egg is lost, then the pair will not attempt another that season. After laying, the male usually undertakes the first incubation stint. Both sexes incubate the egg, in stints that can last up to 13 days. Incubation takes around 50 days. After hatching, the chick is brooded for up to 6 days, until it is able to thermoregulate, after which it is left alone in the nest while both parents hunt for food. It is initially fed with stomach oil, an energy-rich, waxy oil of digested prey created in the parent's gut; later, it is fed both solids and stomach oil. Like many procellariids, wedge-tailed shearwater parents alternate long and short trips to provide food, with the parents alternating between short foraging trips (1–4 days) and long trips (about 8 days), the two parents coordinating their feeding effort. Chicks increase in size to 560 g (20 oz) (larger than the adults), then drop to around 430 g (15 oz) before fledging. Fledging occurs after 103–115 days, after which the chick is independent of the adult.

Known breeding colonies include:

Gallery edit

  •  

    Juvenile, Kilauea, Kauai, Hawaii

  •  

    Profile in flight, Hawaiian Islands

References edit

  1. ^ BirdLife International (2018). "Ardenna pacifica". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2018: e.T22698175A132631353. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22698175A132631353.en. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
  2. ^ Gmelin, Johann Friedrich (1789). Systema naturae per regna tria naturae : secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Vol. 1, Part 2 (13th ed.). Lipsiae [Leipzig]: Georg. Emanuel. Beer. p. 560.
  3. ^ Latham, John (1785). A General Synopsis of Birds. Vol. 3, Part 2. London: Printed for Leigh and Sotheby. p. 416, No. 22.
  4. ^ Mayr, Ernst; Cottrell, G. William, eds. (1979). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 1 (2nd ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 91.
  5. ^ Mathews, Gregory M. (1912). The Birds of Australia. Vol. 2. London: Witherby. p. 80.
  6. ^ Hellmayr, C.E.; Conover, B. (1928). Catalogue of Birds of the Americas and the Adjacent Islands in Field Museum of Natural History. Field Museum Natural History Publication 242. Zoological Series. Volume 13, Part 1 No. 2. p. 66, Note.
  7. ^ Reichenbach, H. G. Ludwig (1853). Avium systema naturale. Dresden and Leipzig: Expedition der vollständigsten naturgeschichte. p. IV. The title page has 1850 (original title page missing in the BHL scan but available from BSB). The Preface is dated 1852 but Mayr 1979 gives the year as 1853.
  8. ^ a b Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (August 2022). "Petrels, albatrosses". IOC World Bird List Version 12.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  9. ^ Ferrer Obiol, J.; James, H.F.; Chesser, R.T.; Bretagnolle, V.; González-Solís, J.; Rozas, J.; Welch, A.J.; Riutort, M. (2022). "Palaeoceanographic changes in the late Pliocene promoted rapid diversification in pelagic seabirds". Journal of Biogeography. 49 (1): 171–188. doi:10.1111/jbi.14291.
  10. ^ Austin, Jeremy J. (August 1996). "Molecular Phylogenetics of Puffinus Shearwaters: Preliminary Evidence from Mitochondrial Cytochrome b Gene Sequences". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 6 (1): 77–88. doi:10.1006/mpev.1996.0060. PMID 8812308.
  11. ^ Austin, Jeremy J.; Bretagnolle, Vincent; Pasquet, Eric (2004). "A global molecular phylogeny of the small Puffinus shearwaters and implications for systematics of the Little-Audubon's Shearwater complex". The Auk. 121 (3): 847–864. doi:10.1642/0004-8038(2004)121[0847:AGMPOT]2.0.CO;2.
  12. ^ Penhallurick, John; Wink, Michael (2004). "Analysis of the taxonomy and nomenclature of the Procellariformes based on complete nucleotide sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene". Emu. 104 (2): 125–147. doi:10.1071/MU01060.
  13. ^ "Proposal (647) to South American Classification Committee: Split Ardenna from Puffinus". South American Classification Committee. Retrieved 23 January 2016.
  14. ^ Burger, Alan E. (2001). "Diving Depths of Shearwaters". The Auk. 118 (3): 755–759. doi:10.1642/0004-8038(2001)118[0755:DDOS]2.0.CO;2.

Further reading edit

  • Congdon, BC; Krockenberger, AK; Smithers, BV (2005). "Dual-foraging and co-ordinated provisioning in a tropical Procellariiform, the wedge-tailed shearwater". Marine Ecology Progress Series. 301: 293–301. doi:10.3354/meps301293.

External links edit

  • BirdLife species factsheet
  • California Bird Records Committee: Rare bird photos – wedge-tailed shearwater
  • USFWS, Midway Atoll NWR: Wedge-tailed shearwater
  • Frank O'Connor's Birding Western Australia: More photos of the wedge-tailed shearwater

December 02, 2023
wedge, tailed, shearwater, wedge, tailed, shearwater, ardenna, pacifica, medium, large, shearwater, seabird, family, procellariidae, shearwater, species, that, sometimes, referred, muttonbird, like, sooty, shearwater, zealand, short, tailed, shearwater, austra. The wedge tailed shearwater Ardenna pacifica is a medium large shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae It is one of the shearwater species that is sometimes referred to as a muttonbird like the sooty shearwater of New Zealand and the short tailed shearwater of Australia It is found throughout the tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans roughly between latitudes 35 N and 35 S It breeds on the islands off Japan on the Islas Revillagigedo the Hawaiian Islands the Seychelles the Northern Mariana Islands and off Eastern and Western Australia Wedge tailed shearwater source source Pair singing Lady Elliot Island Queensland AustraliaConservation statusLeast Concern IUCN 3 1 1 Scientific classificationDomain EukaryotaKingdom AnimaliaPhylum ChordataClass AvesOrder ProcellariiformesFamily ProcellariidaeGenus ArdennaSpecies A pacificaBinomial nameArdenna pacifica Gmelin JF 1789 Nonbreeding BreedingSynonymsProcellaria pacifica protonym Puffinus pacificus Contents 1 Taxonomy 2 Description 3 Behaviour and ecology 3 1 Food and feeding 3 2 Breeding 4 Gallery 5 References 6 Further reading 7 External linksTaxonomy editThe wedge tailed shearwater was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus s Systema Naturae He placed it with the petrels in the genus Procellaria and coined the binomial name Procellaria pacifica 2 Gmelin based his description on the Pacific petrel that had been described in 1785 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his book A General Synopsis of Birds 3 The type locality was designated as the Kermadec Islands by Gregory Mathews in 1912 4 5 6 The wedge tailed shearwater is now one of seven species placed in the genus Ardenna that introduced in 1853 by Ludwig Reichenbach 7 8 The species is monotypic no subspecies are recognised 8 A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2022 found that the wedge tailed shearwater was sister to Buller s shearwater 9 Description edit nbsp The pale morph and dark morphs side by sideThe wedge tailed shearwater is the largest of the tropical shearwaters The two colour morphs of the species are dark and pale the pale morphs predominate in the North Pacific the dark morph elsewhere However both morphs exist in all populations and bear no relation to sex or breeding condition The pale morph has grey brown plumage on the back head and upper wing and whiter plumage below The darker morph has the same dark grey brown plumage over the whole body The species common name is derived from the large wedge shaped tail which may help the species glide The bill is dark and legs are salmon pink with the legs set far back on the body in common with the other shearwaters as an adaptation for swimming This species is related to the pan Pacific Buller s shearwater which differs much in colour pattern but also has a wedge tail and a thin black bill 10 11 They make up the Thyellodroma group a superspecies of the large shearwaters that were for a long time included in the genus Puffinus 12 13 Behaviour and ecology editFood and feeding edit Wedge tailed shearwaters feed pelagically on fish squid and crustaceans Their diet is 66 fish of which the most commonly taken is goatfish The species was thought to mostly take food from surface feeding but observations of feeding wedge tails suggested that contact dipping where birds flying close to the surface snatch prey from the water was the most commonly used hunting technique However a 2001 study which deployed maximum depth recorders found that 83 of wedge tails dived during foraging trips with a mean maximum depth of 14 m 46 ft and that they could achieve a depth of 66 m 217 ft 14 Breeding edit nbsp Egg Museum de Toulouse The wedge tailed shearwater breeds in colonies on small tropical islands Breeding seasons vary depending on location with synchronised breeding seasons more common at higher latitudes Northern Hemisphere birds begin breeding around February and Southern Hemisphere birds begin around September Wedge tailed shearwaters display natal philopatry returning to their natal colony to begin breeding at the age of four nbsp Chick in burrow Kilauea Point National Wildlife RefugeWedge tailed shearwaters are monogamous forming a pair bond that lasts for several years Divorce between pairs occurs after breeding seasons that end in failure Nesting occurs either in burrows or sometimes on the surface under cover Pairs call frequently as a pair both to reinforce the pair bond and warn intruders away from their territory Parents also call to their chicks The call is long with an inhaling component OOO and exhaling component err their Hawaiian name ua u kani means moaning petrel Both sexes participate in digging a burrow or repairing the burrow from last year Nesting burrows of other species are also used The breeding season of the Bonin petrel in Hawaii is timed to avoid that of the wedge tail in years where Bonin petrel chicks are still in burrows when wedge tails return to begin breeding these chicks are killed or evicted It attends these colonies nocturnally although nonbreeding wedge tails are often seen at the surface throughout the day and breeding birds rest outside their burrows before laying Both sexes undertake a prelaying exodus to build up energy reserves this usually lasts around 28 days A single egg is laid if that egg is lost then the pair will not attempt another that season After laying the male usually undertakes the first incubation stint Both sexes incubate the egg in stints that can last up to 13 days Incubation takes around 50 days After hatching the chick is brooded for up to 6 days until it is able to thermoregulate after which it is left alone in the nest while both parents hunt for food It is initially fed with stomach oil an energy rich waxy oil of digested prey created in the parent s gut later it is fed both solids and stomach oil Like many procellariids wedge tailed shearwater parents alternate long and short trips to provide food with the parents alternating between short foraging trips 1 4 days and long trips about 8 days the two parents coordinating their feeding effort Chicks increase in size to 560 g 20 oz larger than the adults then drop to around 430 g 15 oz before fledging Fledging occurs after 103 115 days after which the chick is independent of the adult Known breeding colonies include Pacific Missile Range Facility Kauai Hawaii Heron Island Australia Lady Elliot Island Australia Lady Musgrave Island Australia Lord Howe Island Australia Montague Island Southern New South Wales Australia North West Island Australia Muttonbird Island Coffs Harbour Northern New South Wales Australia Manana Island Hawaii United States Maui Hawaii United States Mokuauia Island Hawaii United States Kupikipiki o Pt Hawaii United States Ilot Maitre Noumea New Caledonia Round Island Mauritius Ka ena Point Oahu Hawaii Managaha Saipan CNMI San Benedicto Island Revillagigedo Islands Mexico Alphonse Island Republic of Seychelles Bijoutier Island Republic of SeychellesGallery edit nbsp Juvenile Kilauea Kauai Hawaii nbsp Profile in flight Hawaiian IslandsReferences edit BirdLife International 2018 Ardenna pacifica IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2018 e T22698175A132631353 doi 10 2305 IUCN UK 2018 2 RLTS T22698175A132631353 en Retrieved 13 November 2021 Gmelin Johann Friedrich 1789 Systema naturae per regna tria naturae secundum classes ordines genera species cum characteribus differentiis synonymis locis in Latin Vol 1 Part 2 13th ed Lipsiae Leipzig Georg Emanuel Beer p 560 Latham John 1785 A General Synopsis of Birds Vol 3 Part 2 London Printed for Leigh and Sotheby p 416 No 22 Mayr Ernst Cottrell G William eds 1979 Check List of Birds of the World Vol 1 2nd ed Cambridge Massachusetts Museum of Comparative Zoology p 91 Mathews Gregory M 1912 The Birds of Australia Vol 2 London Witherby p 80 Hellmayr C E Conover B 1928 Catalogue of Birds of the Americas and the Adjacent Islands in Field Museum of Natural History Field Museum Natural History Publication 242 Zoological Series Volume 13 Part 1 No 2 p 66 Note Reichenbach H G Ludwig 1853 Avium systema naturale Dresden and Leipzig Expedition der vollstandigsten naturgeschichte p IV The title page has 1850 original title page missing in the BHL scan but available from BSB The Preface is dated 1852 but Mayr 1979 gives the year as 1853 a b Gill Frank Donsker David Rasmussen Pamela eds August 2022 Petrels albatrosses IOC World Bird List Version 12 2 International Ornithologists Union Retrieved 15 November 2022 Ferrer Obiol J James H F Chesser R T Bretagnolle V Gonzalez Solis J Rozas J Welch A J Riutort M 2022 Palaeoceanographic changes in the late Pliocene promoted rapid diversification in pelagic seabirds Journal of Biogeography 49 1 171 188 doi 10 1111 jbi 14291 Austin Jeremy J August 1996 Molecular Phylogenetics of Puffinus Shearwaters Preliminary Evidence from Mitochondrial Cytochrome b Gene Sequences Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 6 1 77 88 doi 10 1006 mpev 1996 0060 PMID 8812308 Austin Jeremy J Bretagnolle Vincent Pasquet Eric 2004 A global molecular phylogeny of the small Puffinus shearwaters and implications for systematics of the Little Audubon s Shearwater complex The Auk 121 3 847 864 doi 10 1642 0004 8038 2004 121 0847 AGMPOT 2 0 CO 2 Penhallurick John Wink Michael 2004 Analysis of the taxonomy and nomenclature of the Procellariformes based on complete nucleotide sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene Emu 104 2 125 147 doi 10 1071 MU01060 Proposal 647 to South American Classification Committee Split Ardenna from Puffinus South American Classification Committee Retrieved 23 January 2016 Burger Alan E 2001 Diving Depths of Shearwaters The Auk 118 3 755 759 doi 10 1642 0004 8038 2001 118 0755 DDOS 2 0 CO 2 Further reading editCongdon BC Krockenberger AK Smithers BV 2005 Dual foraging and co ordinated provisioning in a tropical Procellariiform the wedge tailed shearwater Marine Ecology Progress Series 301 293 301 doi 10 3354 meps301293 External links editBirdLife species factsheet California Bird Records Committee Rare bird photos wedge tailed shearwater USFWS Midway Atoll NWR Wedge tailed shearwater Frank O Connor s Birding Western Australia More photos of the wedge tailed shearwater Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Wedge tailed shearwater amp oldid 1169675603, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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