Murphy's petrel (''Pterodroma ultima'') is a species of

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adaptation, adapted to life within the marine ecosystem, marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent ...

and a member of the

gadfly petrel The gadfly petrels or ''Pterodroma'' are a genus of about 35 species of petrels, part of the seabird order Procellariiformes. The gadfly petrels are named for their speedy weaving flight, as if evading gadflies (horse-fly, horseflies). The flight ...

s. The

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

is 38–41 cm length, with a 97 cm wingspan, and weighs about 360 g. Its plumage is all dark sooty-grey, except for a pale chin, and pinkish legs; it does not exhibit sexual dimorphism. It was described by

Robert Cushman Murphy file:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (18156963552).jpg, The whaling ship, ''Daisy'', which Murphy traveled on to the Antarctic Robert Cushman Murphy (April 29, 1887 – March 20, 1973) was an American ornithologist and Lamont Curator of ...

in 1949, which is the source of the species' common name. Murphy's petrels take unusually long feeding trips during incubation.

Distribution

Very little is known about this species of

petrel Petrels are tube-nosed seabirds in the phylogenetic order Procellariiformes. Description Petrels are a monophyletic group of marine seabirds, sharing a characteristic of a nostril arrangement that results in the name "tubenoses". Petrels enco ...

. It occurs in the South

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

, nesting on rocky

islets An islet ( ) is generally a small island. Definitions vary, and are not precise, but some suggest that an islet is a very small, often unnamed, island with little or no vegetation to support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and ...

and cliffs off tropical oceanic

islands This is a list of the lists of islands in the world grouped by country, by continent, by body of water, and by other classifications. For rank-order lists, see the #Other lists of islands, other lists of islands below. Lists of islands by count ...

in the Austral, Tuamotu, and Pitcairn groups. It was not until the 1980s that it was determined that these petrels might be regular visitors far offshore of the west coast of North America. It has been recorded off the coast of the

Hawaiian Islands The Hawaiian Islands () are an archipelago of eight major volcanic islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the Pacific Ocean, North Pacific Ocean, extending some from the Hawaii (island), island of Hawaii in the south to nort ...

and well off the Pacific Coast of the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and in the southern Gulf of Alaska. Most reports of Murphy's petrels are over 64 km offshore and the species reportedly has one of the greatest foraging ranges of any breeding seabird

References

* "National Geographic" ''Field Guide to the Birds of North'' ''America'' * '' Seabirds, an Identification Guide'' by Peter Harrison, (1983) * ''Handbook of the Birds of the World Vol 1'', Josep del Hoyo editor, * "National Audubon Society" ''The Sibley Guide to Birds'', by David Allen Sibley, Murphy's petrel Birds of the Pitcairn Islands Birds of the Tuamotus Murphy's petrel Murphy's petrel {{Procellariiformes-stub