Bryan's shearwater (''Puffinus bryani'') is a species of
shearwater that may occur around the
Hawaiian Islands
The Hawaiian Islands ( haw, Nā Mokupuni o Hawai‘i) are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kur ...
. It is the smallest species of shearwater and is black and white with a bluish gray
beak and blue
tarsi. First collected in 1963 and thought to be a
little shearwater (''Puffinus assimilis'') it was determined using
DNA analysis
Genetic testing, also known as DNA testing, is used to identify changes in DNA sequence or chromosome structure. Genetic testing can also include measuring the results of genetic changes, such as RNA analysis as an output of gene expression, or ...
to be distinct in 2011. It is rare and possibly threatened and there is little information on its breeding or non-breeding ranges. The species is named after Edwin Horace Bryan Jr. a former curator of the
B. P. Bishop Museum at
Honolulu.
On February 7, 2012, DNA tests on six specimens found in
Ogasawara alive and dead between 1997 and 2011 determined that they were Bryan's shearwaters. It is assumed that Bryan's shearwaters still survive on some of the uninhabited
Bonin Islands.
In 2015 a small breeding colony of Bryan's shearwaters was found on the island of
Higashijima in
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
.
References
External links
Press release
{{Taxonbar, from=Q378778
Puffinus
Endemic birds of Hawaii
Critically endangered fauna of Hawaii
Birds described in 2011