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Cookilaria Petrels in the Eastern Pacific Ocean: Identification and Distribution

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Cookilaria Petrels in the Eastern Pacific Ocean: Identification and Distribution SCIENCE msspecimens. We scoredcharacters includingmantle color, tail pattern, andhead pattern; sketched head and rectrixpatterns; and took measure- COOKILARIAPETRELS mentsofculmen length, bill depth, andtail length,and measured indi- vidual rectrices to determine tail shape.Wing lengthswere obtained INTHE EASTERN fromthe literature and from speci- mentags, although it islikely these werenot all taken by the same meth- PACIFICOCEAN' ods. Biometrics from this review will appearin PartII of thispaper. Both authors have studied Cook's Petrels IDENTIFICATIOANDoff California, and Bailey participat- ed in an April 1989 cruisethat recorded113 Cook's Petrels (Bailey et DISTRIBUTION al. 1989). Roberson observed seabirds in the eastern Pacific, August-December1989, on a NOAA- PartI ofa Two-PartSeries sponsoredsurvey. He obtainedexpe- rience with hundreds of Cook's, White-winged,and Black-winged petrels,and a few Stejneger'sand byDon Roberson and "Collared"petrels. Illustrator Keith StephenE Bailey Hansen, whose color plate will appearin PartII, alsohas experience THE SMALL PTERODROMA PETRELS and known distribution of all small withmost of thesespecies in theeast- of the subgenusCookilaria are Pterodroma in the eastern Pacific. We ern Pacific. amongthe least understood seabirds review six species:Cook's Petrel, Neither authorhas field experi- In the world. Two species,Cook's Defilippe'sPetrel, Pycroft's Petrel, encewith Defilippe'sor Pycroft's Petrel (P. cookii)and Stejneger's Stejneger'sPetrel, White-winged petrels.We discussedthese species Petrel(P. longirostris),have been Petrel(P. leucoptera, including "Col- withobservers who had field experi- recorded off the west coast of North laredPetrel" [P. (l.) brevipes]),and ence(e.g., J. A. Barde,C. Corben,B. America;others have been tentative- Black-wingedPetrel (P. nigripennis). Haase, P. Meeth, R. L. Pitman, P. ly reported.Knowledge of theirsta- Twoother species, Chatham Petrel Pyle,L. Spear),and reviewed pho- tushas been clouded by thelack of (P. axillaris) and Bonin Petrel (P. tographsand the literature. While we identification criteria separating hypoleuca),are often included in believe that our conclusions will Cook'sPetrel from Defilippe's Petrel Cookilaria.They do not generally proveof value, they remain open to (P.defilippiana) and Pycroft's Petrel P. occurin theeastern Pacific, and they revision. pycroj•i).Indeed, the California Bird havedistinctive underwing patterns; Records Committee, accepting seeHarrison (1983, 1985, 1987) and Historyand Taxonomy records of cookii, has used a dis- Pratt et al. (1987). Althoughwe Taxonomyof Pterodromapetrels is claimerthat "defilippiana and pycroj•i reviewthe taxonomic history of these far from settled,and much of the lit- wereconsidered eliminated solely on forms,we havenot includedthem in eratureis confusing. The firstspeci- knownrange and not on plumage" themain body of this paper. menswere described by Gray (1843) (Roberson1986, Dunn 1988).Tyler under the name Procellaria cookit. andBurton (1986) thought defilippi- Methods Bonaparte(1855) first used the ana was"nearly identical" to cookii We examineda largepercentage of generic names Cookilaria and in the field. The purposesof this the Cookilariaspecimens in Amer- Pterodroma,placing Cook's Petrel paperare to developidentification ican and New Zealand collections, and alliesin Cookilaria,but he soon criteriafor the Cook's/Defilippe's/ studying100 cookii, 34 defilippiana,moved them to RhantistesKaup Pycroft's/Stejneger'sgroup, and to 37 pycroj•i,95 1ongirostris,95 leu- (Bonaparte1856). Numerous other summarize identification features coptera(of all races), and 79 nigripen-species were described in the late Volume45, Number 3' • 1800s,but Mathews (1912) lumped Cookdarta to b•rds with a dehcate bill New Caledoma bird •s best consid- allthese birds under the single species and skull structure and bluish feet. ereda raceof White-winged Petrel/?. Pterodromacookii. Murphy (1929) Havingreviewed Stejneger's descrip- leucoptera(Imber and Jenkins 1981), reviewed the situation and conclud- tion of thebird off Japan,and the andBourne (in litt.) nowconsiders it edthere were but twospecies: pale- laterspecimens, he concluded that a poorlydefined race, not separable headed birds Pterodroma cookii those in the northeastern Pacific were in the field. Bourne (1983) also (includingthose we now call Cook's, moltingmigrants of theMas Afuera pointedout that Collared Petrel may Black-winged,Chatham, and De- nestingbird and called them all/?. lon- bea formof leucoptera,assuggested filippe'spetrels) and those with dark girostris,this having priority over by Murphy (1929). Our limited crownand nape/?. leucoptera (includ- Murphy'sname masafuera. (The type experiencesuggests it is similarin ing thosenow knownas White- specimen,in Tokyo,remained inac- shapeand flight to White-winged winged, Stejneger's,and Bonin cessibleowing to World War II.) Petrel,and that pale birds are not sep- petrels).He calledthe dark-headed Withinthe Cookilariasubgenus, he arablefrom that species in thefield. birdsnesting in theJuan Fernandez concludedthere were three species:/?. We followJouanin and Mougin islandsoff Chile the "MasAfuera longirostris(Stejneger's and Pycroft's (1979)in consideringit a raceof P. Petrel"(P. l. masafuera),and used petrels), P. cookii (Cook's and leucoptera.[Ainley and Boekelheide "MasAtierra Petrel" for the pale- Defilippe'spetrels), and/?. leucoptera (1983) mistakenly used the name "P headedform here,/?. [c.] defilippiana. (White-winged Petrel). There re- l. gouldi"for17. l. brevipes(D. Ainley, He also describeda new race, orien- mainedBonin, Black-winged, and pers.comm.). The term '•ouldi'qs talis,for birds that were very like the Chathampetrels; these had stout bills notavailable for anypopulation of Cook'sPetrels nesting around New andusually flesh-colored feet. He thesepetrels, as "Pterodroma gouldi" Zealand, but which occurred off decidedthey wereone species:P. (Hutton) isnow consideredthe New Chile;these had a scalyback pattern hypoleuca.Fleming (1941 ) consid- Zealandrace of Great-winged Petrel formedby whitish feather tips. He eredCook's and Pycroft's separate (17.macroptera). ] wasunable to placethe taxonlon- species,and lumped Black-winged The popularliterature has tended girostrisdescribed from seas off Japan andChatham petrels as one species,/?. to discussall taxaas separate species, byStejneger (1893), not having seen axillaris, within the Cookilaria sub- but it is not without its own confu- thetype specimen, but he thought it genus.Later, Falla (1962) received sion.Harper and Kinsky (1978) spht likely belongedto the leucopteranotes on/?. longirostrisfrom Kuroda in Pycroft'sfrom Stejneger'sand group.Soon thereafter he referred Japan,supporting his conclusion that Collaredfrom White-winged, asd•d fiveother specimens from the north- it wasa migrantfrom the Mas Afuera Harrison (1983), who greatly eastern Pacific to longirostrisislands; the species has been known as improvedon earlierdiscussions of (Murphy1930). Moffitt (1938)fol- Stejneger'sPetrel ever since. field identification. However, lowed Murphy's taxonomyand Jouaninand Mougin reviewed the Harrison(1983) confused defilipp•- referredthe 1908specimens far off Procellariiformesin 1979. Among anawith Murphy's discredited orien- California(Loomis 1918) to/?.leu- thesepetrels, they lumped Pycroft's talis, and thus failed to include copteramasafuera. Although "masa- with Stejneger'sand Collared with Defilippe'sPetrel in hisguide. Th•s fuera"later proved to belongirostris, White-winged. All were placed in the waspartly remediedin Harrison and these specimenswere of subgenusCookilaria and considered (1985), who called it "at best an Stejneger'sPetrel, the original label of a superspecies.Black-winged and allopatricform of Cook'sPetrel"; but leucopterapersisted and the records Chatham were considered another hegave a rangeof"to 12øN,"again weremistakenly attributed to White- superspecies,but Boninwas termed confusingDefilippe's with specimens wingedPetrel (e.g., Pough 1957). "distinct."The A.O.U. (1983)large- of theold "orientalis" (all specimens Duringthis period Falla (1933) ly followedthis taxonomy, though taken north of the equator are describedPycroft's Petrel (P. pycrofi•). they restricted the superspecies to Cook's).In Harrison(1987), deftlip- Falla also discussed an immature cookii/defilippiana.Bourne (1983) piana(under the name "Masatierra Cook'sspecimen that hada scaly reviewedthe entire group and used Petrel")metired full textand illustra- backand wondered if Murphy's ori- the subgenusCookilaria for all tions,and the range was somewhat entalismightbe a youngCook's on speciesexcept Black-winged, Chat- reduced(though still mapped too far migration.This interpretation isnow ham, and Bonin. He treated all dis- north),but the painting of defilippi- generallyaccepted, and "orientalis" is tinctive populationsas separate anashowed an incorrect tail pattern. not considered valid. species,including the recently dis- Plate 129 in Harrison (1987), also In a subsequentreview, Falla covered birds from New Caledonia appearingin L•fgren (1984) and (1942) restrictedthe subgenus (de Naurois 1978). However, the Lindsey(1986), labelled"Cook's 400. AmericanBirds, Fall 1991 Petrel,"is actuallya fine photoof "white-winged,"and that the name 1990), in the centralPacific (Gould Defilippe'sPetrel taken by Lars White-wingedPetrel is used widely 1983),and offBaja California (pers. L6fgrenoff Chile. Harrison'splate by researchersin the Pacific(e.g., obs.),but in generalmost
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