New seabird species discovered in Hawaii

NEWLY DISCOVERED: Bryan's shearwater

September: For the first time in decades, researchers have found a new bird species in the United States.

Based on a specimen collected in 1963 on Midway Atoll, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, biologists have described a new species of seabird, Bryan's shearwater, according to differences in measurements and physical appearance compared to other species of shearwaters. Scientists at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute analysed the specimen's DNA to confirm that it is an entirely new species.

‘Usually we see a species split into two because we find that one of them has a very different DNA than the other, without other indicators,'said Rob Fleischer, head of SCBI's Centre for Conservation and Evolutionary Genetics.

The smallest known shearwater
‘It's very unusual to discover a new species of bird these days and especially gratifying when DNA can confirm our original hypothesis that the animal is unique. This bird is unique, both genetically and in appearance, and represents a novel, albeit very rare, species.'

Researchers have rarely discovered new species of birds since most of the world's 9,000-plus species (including about 21 other species of shearwaters) were described before 1900. The majority of new species described since the mid-1900s have been discovered in remote tropical rain and cloud forests, primarily in South America and southeastern Asia.

The Bryan's shearwater is the first new species reported from the United States and Hawaiian Islands since the Po'ouli was described from the forests of Maui in 1974.

But could already be extinct
The Bryan's shearwater is the smallest shearwater known to exist. It is black and white with a black or blue-grey bill and blue legs. Biologists found the species in a burrow among a colony of petrels during the Pacific Ocean Biological Survey Program in 1963. Peter Pyle, an ornithologist at the Institute for Bird Populations, recently examined the specimen and found that it was too small to be a little shearwater and that it had a distinct appearance.

Researchers do not know where Bryan's shearwaters breed. According to Pyle, shearwaters and other seabirds often visit nesting burrows on remote islands only at night and researchers have not discovered the breeding locations of many populations. Individual seabirds from colonies also often ‘prospect' for new breeding locations, usually far from existing colonies.

Given that Bryan's shearwaters have remained undiscovered until now, they could be very rare and possibly even extinct.

‘If we can find where this species breeds, we may have a chance to protect it and keep it from going extinct,' Welch said. ‘Genetic analysis allows us to investigate whether an animal represents an entirely different species, and that knowledge is important for setting conservation priorities and preventing extinction.'