flesh-footed shearwater

Flesh-footed Shearwater
Conservation status
Least Concern
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Procellariiformes Family: Procellariidae Genus: Puffinus Species: P. carneipes
Binomial name
Puffinus carneipes Gould, 1844

The Flesh-footed Shearwater, Puffinus carneipes, is a small shearwater. Its plumage is black. It has pale pinkish feet, and a pale bill with a black tip. Together with the equally light-billed Pink-footed Shearwater, it forms the Hemipuffinus group, a superspecies which may or may not have an Atlantic relative in the Great Shearwater (Austin, 1996; Austin et al, 2004). These are large shearwaters which are among those that could be separated in the genus Ardenna (Penhallurick & Wink, 2004).

It breeds in colonies, and has two main breeding areas: one in the South West Pacific Ocean includes Lord Howe Island (20,000 to 40,000 pairs) and northern New Zealand (50,000 to 100,000 pairs); the other is along the coast of Western Australia from Cape Leeuwin to the Recherche Archipelago. Another 600 pairs breed on St Paul Island in the Indian Ocean. It occurs as a summer visitor in the North Pacific Ocean as far north as British Columbia. Flesh-footed shearwaters have been sighted in the Central-North Pacific, above the main Hawaiian Islands as well.

References

• Austin, Jeremy J. (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 (HTML abstract)

• 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. Auk 121(3): 847–864. DOI: 10.1642/0004-8038(2004)121[0847:AGMPOT]2.0.CO;2 HTML abstract

• BirdLife International (2004). Puffinus carneipes. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 10 May 2006. Database entry includes a lengthy justification of why this species is of least concern

• 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 (HTML abstract)

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