Pink-footed Shearwater

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Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Procellariiformes
Family:	Procellariidae
Genus:	Puffinus
Species:	P. creatopus

Binomial name

Puffinus creatopus
Coues, 1864

The Pink-footed Shearwater (Puffinus creatopus) is a species of seabird. The bird is 48 cm in size, with a 109 cm wingspan. It is polymorphic, having both darker and lighter phase populations. Together with the equally light-billed Flesh-footed Shearwater, it forms the Hemipuffinus group, a superspecies which may or may not have an Atlantic relative in the Great Shearwater (Austin, 1996; Austin et al, 2004). These are large shearwaters which are among those that could be separated in the genus Ardenna (Penhallurick & Wink, 2004).

This species is pelagic, occurring in the Pacific Ocean. It predominantly nests on offshore islands off Chile, i.e. Mocha Island. It is a transequatorial migrant, moving toward subarctic waters of the Pacific after raising it's young. It is fairly common well off the west coast of the United States during the country's warmer months.

Pink-footed Shearwater feeds on mainly fish, squid and crustaceans.

This bird nests in burrows, preferring forested slopes. It is a colonial nester.

Numbers of this shearwater are have been reduced due to predation by introduced species, such as rats and cats. Some loss of birds also occurs from becoming entangled in fishing gear.

[edit] References

Austin, Jeremy J. (1996): Molecular Phylogenetics of Puffinus Shearwaters: Preliminary Evidence from Mitochondrial Cytochrome b Gene Sequences. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 6(1): 77–88. doi:10.1006/mpev.1996.0060 (HTML abstract)

Austin, Jeremy J.; Bretagnolle, Vincent & Pasquet, Eric (2004): A global molecular phylogeny of the small Puffinus shearwaters and implications for systematics of the Little-Audubon's Shearwater complex. Auk 121(3): 847–864. DOI: 10.1642/0004-8038(2004)121[0847:AGMPOT]2.0.CO;2 HTML abstract

BirdLife International (2004). Puffinus creatopus. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes a brief justification of why this species is of vulnerable,and the criteria used

Carboneras, Carles (1992): 54. Pink-footed Shearwater. In: del Hoyo, Josep; Elliott, Andrew & Sargatal, Jordi (editors): Handbook of Birds of the World, Volume 1: Ostrich to Ducks: 253, Plate 16. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. ISBN 84-87334-10-5

Harrison, Peter (1991): Seabirds: An Identification Guide. Houghton Mifflin.

National Geographic Society (2002): Field Guide to the Birds of North America. National Geographic, Washington DC. ISBN 0-7922-6877-6

Penhallurick, John & Wink, Michael (2004): Analysis of the taxonomy and nomenclature of the Procellariformes based on complete nucleotide sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene. Emu 104(2): 125-147. doi:10.1071/MU01060 (HTML abstract)