Beck's petrel (''Pseudobulweria becki'') is a small species of

petrel Petrels are tube-nosed seabirds in the bird order Procellariiformes. Description The common name does not indicate relationship beyond that point, as "petrels" occur in three of the four families within that group (all except the albatross f ...

. Its

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

commemorates American ornithologist

Rollo Beck Rollo Howard Beck (26 August 1870 – 22 November 1950) was an American ornithologist, bird collector for museums, and explorer. Beck's petrel and three taxa of reptiles are named after him, including a subspecies of Galápagos tortoise, ''Chelon ...

. It is believed to nest on small islands with tall mountains around

Melanesia Melanesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It extends from Indonesia's New Guinea in the west to Fiji in the east, and includes the Arafura Sea. The region includes the four independent countries of Fiji, Va ...

. Described in 1928, and long known from only two specimens, sightings and collections in the 2000s confirmed the birds still existed, but are considered critically endangered by the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

Description

It is dark brown above and on the head and throat. It is dark underneath the wings with a fairly distinct white wingbar. The belly and breast are white. It flies over open oceans with straight wings that are slightly bent back at the tips.

History

The petrel used to be known from only two specimens – a female east of New Ireland, PNG in 1928 and a male north-east of

Rendova Rendova is an island in the Western Province of the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific, east of Papua New Guinea. Geography Rendova Island is a roughly rectangularly-shaped island, located in the South Pacific in the New Georgia Islands. The ...

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capita ...

in 1929. In 2005, a bird possibly of this species was photographed in Australia's

Coral Sea The Coral Sea () is a marginal sea of the South Pacific off the northeast coast of Australia, and classified as an interim Australian bioregion. The Coral Sea extends down the Australian northeast coast. Most of it is protected by the Fre ...

by birding tour guide Richard Baxter. He noted that it was definitely not the similar and much more common Tahiti petrel because it is much smaller. He also noted the pale throat and shorter and broader wings. This record has not been officially accepted by the Birds Australia Rarities Committee, considering at the time of the report, no living specimens of the species had been found, but given the new evidence this may eventually change. In recent times, sightings of birds that may have been Beck's petrels were reported from the

Bismarck Archipelago The Bismarck Archipelago (, ) is a group of islands off the northeastern coast of New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean and is part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. Its area is about 50,000 square km. History The first inhabitants o ...

and Solomon Islands.

Hadoram Shirihai Hadoram Shirihai (born in Israel 1962) is an Israeli ornithologist and writer. Biography Shirihai is the son of Batia and Eli Shirihai. His mother was a schoolteacher, his father was a zoologist in Israel. He grew up in Jerusalem where he becam ...

, the Israeli ornithologist, finally managed to confirm the species' continuing existence. In 2003, he had made some of the tentative sightings, and returning to the area in July and August 2007, he observed and photographed some 30 birds, including juveniles and adults. Sightings were especially frequent near Cape St George, New Ireland. A bird that had recently died was collected as the third specimen, finally providing definite proof of the mysterious petrels' identity. In February 2010 a live Beck's petrel, disoriented by ship's lights during night flight, landed on a cruise ship (chartered for a

birdwatching Birdwatching, or birding, is the observing of birds, either as a recreational activity or as a form of citizen science. A birdwatcher may observe by using their naked eye, by using a visual enhancement device like binoculars or a telescope, b ...

tour) between New Zealand and New Guinea, and, after being closely examined, was released alive the next day.''The Babbling Brook'', periodical of the Wachiska Audubon Society of Southeast Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska, July 2010; article "Petrel Encounter" by Jeanne Kern, page 2

Breeding

The breeding grounds are still undiscovered. While most of the data suggests a location in the southern Bismarck Archipelago, petrels are notoriously migratory and move away from their breeding grounds after the young have fledged, often for considerable distances. It is still more likely than not that the species breeds in Melanesia southeast of

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

, as was hypothesized at the species' discovery.

References

BirdLife International (2006) Species factsheet: Pseudobulweria becki.
Downloaded from https://www.webcitation.org/5QE8rvIqH?url=http://www.birdlife.org/ on 26 June 2006

External links

Birds Australia Rarities Committee submission {{Taxonbar, from=Q1207255

Beck's petrel Beck's petrel (''Pseudobulweria becki'') is a small species of petrel. Its specific epithet commemorates American ornithologist Rollo Beck. It is believed to nest on small islands with tall mountains around Melanesia. Described in 1928, and long ...

Birds of Melanesia