S a icds in hamian Archip I ,nd ad' c nt t rs: Tr ,nsi nt, Xx,int rin ndR,r N stin S ci s Turks and Caicos Islands. The Bahama nor and Loftin (1985) and Budcn(1987). The AnthonyW. White Islands lie as close as 92 km (50 nautical statusof nonbreedingseabirds, on the other miles)to theFlorida coast, and so, as a prac- hand,has never been reported comprehen- 6540Walhonding Road tical matter,all recordsca. 46 km or more east sivelyand is sometimesdescribed in general of Florida between Palm Beachand Miami are termssuch as "reportedand to be expected Bethesda,Maryland 20816 consideredtobe in Bahamianwaters. To pre- occasionally"(Brudenell-Brucc 1975) or "at servethe relative accuracy of thereports, dis- seaamong the Bahamas"(Bond 1993). The (email:[email protected]) tances arc citedas givenin sources,rather presentpaper compiles published and unpub- than converted into metric units. lishedreports of transientand wintering Ihc birdlife of the BahamaIslands has been seabirdsin theregion in orderto provide a bet- ABSTRACT studiedsporadical13z Landbirds have received ter understandingof theirstatus; several rare The statusof mostnonbreeding seabirds in themost attention recently, owing to increased breedingspecies are included herein as well. the BahamianArchipelago and its adjacent interestin winteringNeotropical migrants. Manyreports are foundin relativelyobscure watersis poorly understood.Much of the Breedingseabirds have also been fairly well publicationsor in personalarchives, which availableinformation isbased on sight reports documented.Sprunt (1984) provides a com- hasmeant that evenmodern-day observers unsupportedby specimensor photographic prehensivereport of breedingseabirds; Lee lackcontextual information on seabirdsthey evidence.This paper reviews published and andClark (1994) cover seabirds nesting in the seein theregion. Although some sight reports unpublishedreports in orderto assessthe sta- Exumas;White and Lee (2000) summarize maybe erroneous,there arc so few records tus and distribution in the Bahama Islands of currentnesting colonies; and Schreiberand substantiatedby physicalevidence from this 37 seabirdspecies from families Diomedeidac, Lee (2000) report on nesting seabirds regionthat listingonly thosewould offer an Proeellariidac,Hydrobatidac, Phaethontidae, throughoutthe West Indies. Some seabird data inaccuratepicture of the birds'status. Refer- Sulidac,Pelecanidae, Fregatidac, Lar]dac, and arc contained in studies of the birds of indi- onceis made to thestatus of several species in Alcidac.as well asScolopacidae for the sub- vidualislands or groupsof islands,e.g., Con- Floridaand the West Indies in orderto place familyPhalaropodinae. INTRODUCTION TheBahamian Archipelago (map right) lies partiallyoff the Atlanticcoast of Floridaat 27ø N, about the latitude of Lake Okcc- chobcc,and stretchessoutheast to 21ø N off centralHispaniola (Haiti/Dominican Repub- lic) in the GreaterAn]illes. Politically, the islands include the Commonwealth of the Bahamasand the British Overseas Territory of the Turksand CaicosIslands. "Adjacent waters" are defined herein as the boundaries of the Bahamas Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), that is, waters within 200 nautical miles (374 kin) of the Commonwealth of the Bahamasor halfwayto the nearestcountry, whicheveris shorter(Bahamas Environment, Scienceand Technology Commission 2002). The boundary between the U.S. and Bahamian Exclusive Economic Zones is shownon H. O. [HydrographicOffice] Chart 27005 "KeyWe, st to SanJuan" (1985). In the TheRed-footed Booby isa very rare nester inthe Bahamas. Thiswhite-morph birdwas photographed nesting among Brown Boobies presentpaper, the same geographic construc- atWhite Cay, San Salvador, Bahamas 28April 1995; the species hasbeen present inthis area from 1988 to the present butwas tion hasbeen applied to the watersof the apparentlyanabundant nester inthe Bahamas athousand years ago. Photograph byAileen Bainton. 436 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS Little .FoxTown DETAIL MAP Bahama LITTLEASAC ø Abaco Bank THE BAHAMIAN Green Turt•e Cay & PlymouthHarbour Lake ARCHIPELAGO Okeechobee Freeport© • Peterson ABACO BAHAMA mo•.•r,•0 G , ]VørttltJ,est • FLOP, IDA B•nk GREAT T•n THE BERRY BI•INIS IS•NDS •o" ABACO ELEUTHE• looter Cars NEW Governor's Harbour COHHONWEALTH PROVIDENCE ß •-•DoubleBa,OF THE BAHAHAS ßß (seedet• Tarpu Ocean mobbelow) Bay n• L•ttleSan Cay owe / CAT Graham'sHarbour Atlantic ANDROS I•. IS•ND (includesCa•o& • Eruma •,,d Darnas OC(dOFI Cays • Big%'• Sound Elbow An ullla Cay Coy •r' oG Cay.... N.•_ ConcepIsland....SAN SALVADOR car Sal Sai Bank LONG SamanaCay GrassyCreek Cays ISLAND.•> (Arwood'sKey) -.•e•CROOKED .•(•. ISLANDPlana RAGGEDC?.•?•' CaysMAYAGUANa TURKS AND Car ISLANDSL•p.•a h ProvldenclalesCAICOS ISLANDS Lobos Cay •c•u•s • / .i• Verde CasdeI. • / C..... •b• Grand DETAIL FlAP Cay H•[• LILLE ' CAICOS •b' •Turk The Exumas Santo INAGUA West IS•NDS •-• • Domingo GREAT Caicos • /U•R• •' IS•NDS INAGUA Moron Salt Ponds • Southeast Point CUBA Arawak DETAIL MAP New Providence •oy• ParadiseIsland •able Nassau Montagu Beach B•y Caribbean 0 KILOMETERS50 100 A Sea N 0 20 40 60 Exuma MILES the Bahamianreports in the contextof the Audubon'sShearwater (Puffinus lherminieri), tifiedalbatross, near Cave Cay, Exumas 8 June westernsubtropical North Adantic avifauna. White-tailedTropicbird (Phaethon lepturus), 1998(EN. 52: 507-508). Althoughneither A clear distinction is maintained in the BrownBooby (Sula leucogaster), Brown Peli- reportwas sufficiently detailed to determine paperbetween substantiated and unsubstanti- can (Pelecanusoccidentalis), Double-crested thespecies involved, the mostlikely would atedobservations; those for whichspecimen Cormorant(Phalacrocorax auritus), Neolropic seem to be a mollymawk(Thalassarche) or photographicevidence is extantfrom the Cormorant (P brasilianus),Magnificent species,either Black-browed (T. melanophris) Bahamas or lurks and Caicos are so noted. Frigatebird(Fregata magnificens), Laughing or Yellow-nosedAlbatross (T. chlororhynchos), Observationssubstantiated by specimenor Gull (Larusatricilla), Ring-billed Gull (L whichtogether account for all acceptedwest- photographare referred to as"records," while delawarensis),Herring Gull (L. argentatus), ernNorth Atlantic Ocean records and reports observations without substantiation are Gull-billedTern (Sterna nilotica), Royal Tern of albatrossspecies, although there are four referredto as "reports."Records and reports (S.maxima), Roseate Tern (S. dougallii), Sand- reportsof WanderingAlbatross (Diomedea are summarized in table form when more than wich Tern (S. sandvicensis),Least Tern (S. exulans)from Europeanwaters (Mlodinow 10 crediblereports and/or records are known. antillarum), Bridled Tern (S. anaethetus), 1999).Florida has one report of the former Sourcescommonly referenced are abbreviated SootyTern (S. fuscata),and BrownNoddy andsix reports, plus three records, of thelat- as follows: AmericanBirds (A.B.), Audubon (Anousstolidus). Masked Booby (Sula dactyla- ter (B. Pranty,in litt.). Field Notes (A.EN.), ChristmasBird Count tra) and Red-lootedBooby (S. sula) have data (C.B.C. data on-fine at nested in the Bahamas but are included NorthernFulmar (Fulmarus gladalis) <http:www.audubon.org/cbc.htm>; yearindi- becausesuch nesting is currentlyrestricted to UNSUBSIANIIAIED. ONE REPORT. catedis the yearin whichthe count-period a veryfew sites. ends,as per practiceat NationalAudubon Onereported from Lake Cunningham, New Society),Field Notes (EN.), Florida Ornitho- SPECIESACCOUNTS Providence13 February 1988 (A.B. 42: logicalSociety Records Committee archive 327-328). Thisreport would be thesouth- (EO.S.R.C.),North AmericanBirds (N.A.B.), albatross(Diomedeidae), ernmost in the Adantic Ocean. There are no and Sea5wallow (5.5.). For easeof reference, speciesundetermined reportsfrom Florida (Stevenson and Ander- sightreports and confirmed records digested UNSUBSTANTIATED.TWO REPORTS. son 1994). thereinare indexedwithin the bodyof the paperusing volume and page number only. Thereis no substantiatedrecord of an5' alba- Bermuda Petrel (Pterodromacahow) Seabirds that nest in the Bahama lslands trossspecies from the Bahamas. All reports:l PROBABLEBREEDER mN PRE-COLuMBmAN TIMES. andtwo gull species that are known to winter unidentifiedalbatross, Conception Island 25 there regularly are not includedhere: December1997 (EN. 52: 507-508), 1 uniden- Bones of the Bermuda Petrel were found in a VOLUME 57 (2004) NUMBER 4 437 pre-Columbianmidden on take these birds through Crooked lsland, Bahamas southeastern Bahamian (Olsonand Hilgartner 1982), watersand straightthrough suggestingthat it bredin the the Turks and Caicos Bahamasprior to discovery Islands. Florida had some of the New World by Euro- 21 observationstotaling at peans (Olson 1982). On least70 birdsthrough 1992 Bermuda,this petrel was an all but two from the Atlantic abundant nester prior to side (Stevenson and Ander- Europeansettlement there in son 1994), and there have theearly 1600s, but fromthe beenminimally five observa- 1630s through the nine- lions totaling nine birds teenth century, it was since that time, most off the thought to be extinct Atlantic coast (EO.S.R.C. (Wingateet al. 1998). Two archive;B. Pranty,in litt.). specimenswere recovered in From the Bahamas,there Figure1.This Greater Shearwater isthe only individual documented byphotograph inthe Bahamas the early twentiethcentury, andvicinity; itwas present near Highbome Cay9 July 2003. œhotograph byRon are 13 reportstotaling 20 andin 1951,a fewpairs were birds from 1913 to 2002,