Cook's Petrel
Pterodroma cookii
A small, fast-flying petrel with long narrow wings and bright white underparts. Found singly or in loose aggregations, well offshore in warmer Pacific waters, mainly from March to August. Flight varies from low and weaving, into the wind, to high and arcing across the wind. Note gray cap and upperparts with dark M pattern across upperwings and dark tail tip. Underparts are white with very narrow black margins to wings. Many birds off Mexican coast are in wing molt.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Pterodroma cookii
- Authority
- (Gray, GR, 1843)
- Order
- Procellariiformes
- Family
- Procellariidae
- Genus
- Pterodroma
Range and habitat
Cook's petrel breeds only in New Zealand on three small islands: Little Barrier Island, Great Barrier Island, and Codfish Island. The breeding season is the southern summer, October–May. It nests in burrows and rock crevices, preferring sites on thickly forested ridges. Its call is a three-part kek, kek, kek. The species was formerly more numerous; the current population estimate is 1,258,000 and declining. It is classified as vulnerable because it breeds on only three small islands. While Little Barrier Island's population remains stable, the other two populations are decreasing. On Great Barrier Island, introduced pigs, dogs, rats and cats attack nests and burrows, as do native weka (a flightless rail), preying on eggs and nestlings and reducing the population from an estimated 20,000 to 100[citation needed]. Fossils show that prior to the arrival of humans to New Zealand, Cook's petrel used to breed on the mainland New Zealand North and South Islands.<p>Cook's petrel migrates to the Pacific Ocean from New Zealand when it is not breeding. It has sometimes been seen off the west coast of the United States and off the west coast of tropical South America.
- Breeding range
- PO : Great and Little Barrier is. (off ne North I.) and Codfish I. (=Whenua Hou, nw of Stewart I.; New Zealand)
- Non-breeding range
- to Tasman Sea, off se Australia and ne to se Pacific Ocean off Aleutian Is. and w Pacific coast from nw Mexico to Chile
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Conservation
- Population trend
- rising
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Boyer's Cuckooshrike
Coracina boyeri
A medium-sized bird of lowland forest canopy. Blue-gray plumage with darker wings and tail, and slightly paler head. Male has a black face. Similar to male Common and Gray-headed, plus female Papuan and Black-bellied Cicadabirds, but Boyer’s has a paler head, stubbier bill and rufous underwings. Also similar to Stout-billed Cuckooshrike, but much smaller and shorter-tailed. Voice, long, piercing, nasal “kiiieeeuuu!”, which can be either upslurred or downslurred.
New Zealand Kaka
Nestor meridionalis
A large, olive-brown parrot endemic to New Zealand. Adults have a deep crimson belly and undertail with a red-orange underwing. South Island birds are brighter with a white crown. Juveniles have a yellow base to their lower bill. A forest-dwelling parrot that is more common on offshore islands, but flourishes in areas where mammalian predators are controlled; some visit city and rural gardens. Harsh, grating “kra-aa” call is often heard before the bird is seen. The species also whistles a series of tuneful notes while perched. Distinguishable from Kea by smaller size, olive-brown as opposed to olive-green plumage, and range.
Silver-backed Butcherbird
Cracticus argenteus
Medium-sized ambush-hunter with a long gray bill with a dark, hooked tip. Black head and face with a white nape and chin. Upperparts very pale gray, with white rump, outer part of wings black, inner part of wings white, and black tail with white tip. Rollicking, chuckling song.
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