Tristram's storm petrel or ''akihikeehiale'' (''Hydrobates tristrami'') is a species of

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

in the

storm petrel Storm-petrel may refer to one of two bird families, both in the order Procellariiformes, once treated as the same family. The two families are: *Northern storm petrels (''Hydrobatidae'') are found in the Northern Hemisphere, although some specie ...

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Hydrobatidae. The species' common and scientific name is derived from the English clergyman

Henry Baker Tristram Henry Baker Tristram FRS (11 May 1822 – 8 March 1906) was an English clergyman, Bible scholar, traveller and ornithologist. As a parson-naturalist he was an early supporter of Darwinism, attempting to reconcile evolution and creation. Biogra ...

; the species can also be known as the sooty storm petrel. Tristram's storm petrel has a distribution across the north

Pacific Ocean 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 definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

, predominantly in tropical seas. This storm petrel has long, angular wings. This is likely the largest member of the storm petrel family, with a total length , a wingspan of and a body mass of with average weights of . Its

plumage Plumage ( "feather") is a layer of feathers that covers a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage differ between species and subspecies and may vary with age classes. Within species, ...

is all over dark with a slightly pale rump and a pale grey bar on the upper wing. The species is

colonial Colonial or The Colonial may refer to: * Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology) Architecture * American colonial architecture * French Colonial * Spanish Colonial architecture Automobiles * Colonial (1920 a ...

, nesting in the

Northwest Hawaiian Islands The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands or Leeward Hawaiian Islands are a series of islands and atolls in the Hawaiian island chain located northwest (in some cases, far to the northwest) of the islands of Kauai and Niihau. Politically, they are all ...

, and in several small islands south of Japan, including the

Bonin Islands The Bonin Islands, also known as the , are an archipelago of over 30 subtropical and tropical islands, some directly south of Tokyo, Japan and northwest of Guam. The name "Bonin Islands" comes from the Japanese word ''bunin'' (an archaic readi ...

and Izu. Colonies are attended at night, and the species breeds during the winter. At sea, the species is

pelagic The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean, and can be further divided into regions by depth (as illustrated on the right). The word ''pelagic'' is derived . The pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or w ...

, feeding on

squid True squid are molluscs with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight arms, and two tentacles in the superorder Decapodiformes, though many other molluscs within the broader Neocoleoidea are also called squid despite not strictly fitting ...

and

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% ...

. Tristram's storm petrel is considered near threatened. All of its breeding colonies in Hawaii are protected areas, but the species has undergone declines in the past due to introduced rats on Torishima Island. In the early 21st century, the Tristam's storm petrel were included in a study of plastic ingestion by birds, at Tern Island in the French Frigate Shoals. The species is named after Reverend

, who also collected natural history specimens.

Taxonomy

The

holotype specimen A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

of ''Oceanodroma tristrami'' Salvin
Cat.Bds.Brit.Mus., 25,1896, p.347
is held in the vertebrate zoology collection of

World Museum World Museum is a large museum in Liverpool, England which has extensive collections covering archaeology, ethnology and the natural and physical sciences. Special attractions include the Natural History Centre and a planetarium. Entry to the ...

National Museums Liverpool National Museums Liverpool, formerly National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside, comprises several museums and art galleries in and around Liverpool, England. All the museums and galleries in the group have free admission. The museum is a non ...

, with accession number NML-VZ T9781. The specimen was collected by Lieutenant Gunn at Sendai Bay, Japan, July 1874, and came to the Liverpool national collection through the purchase of

's collection. It was formerly defined in the genus ''

Oceanodroma Northern storm petrels are seabirds in the genus ''Hydrobates'' in the family Hydrobatidae, part of the order Procellariiformes. The family was once lumped with the similar austral storm petrels in the combined storm petrels, but have been spli ...

'' before that genus was synonymized with '' Hydrobates''.

References

* Brooke, M. (2004). ''Albatrosses And Petrels Across The World'' Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK {{Taxonbar, from=Q1262413 Tristram's storm petrel Birds of Hawaii Izu–Bonin–Mariana Arc Tristram's storm petrel Tristram's storm petrel Taxonomy articles created by Polbot