New bird species identified, but believed extinct

A seabird found in 1963 that had been identified as a shearwater turns out to be a new species, a discovery made in large part thanks to a researcher with ties to Hawaii.

The seabird, thought to be a little shearwater, was first located in the Northern Hawaiian Islands on Midway Atoll, although it might now be extinct.

The Bishop Museum announced Friday the bird was of a new species, marking the first time in decades a new species of seabird has been reported in the United States.

The species has been named Bryan’s shearwater (Puffinus bryani), after Edwin Horace Bryan Jr., curator of collections at Bishop Museum from 1919 until 1968.

The determination was made because of differences in measurements and physical appearance compared with other species of shearwaters, and through DNA analysis, Bishop Museum said in a news release.

Peter Pyle, a researcher who works at the Institute for Bird Populations in Point Reyes, Calif., took a closer look at the species while working with his father, Robert L. Pyle, to examine all the bird species that had been collected in Hawaii for a monograph.

"It did not seem to fit any other shearwater species in size and appearance," Pyle said in a statement. "The closest being Boyd’s shearwater, a species that breeds in the Azore Islands of the Atlantic and would be extremely unlikely in the middle of the Pacific."

Smithsonian ornithologists confirmed by DNA analysis that the bird was a new species.

Bryan, who authored publications on Hawaiian insects and birds, participated in biological expeditions in the 1920s, including one to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

Pyle is his grandson.

"This (the naming of the bird) is absolutely special and especially meaningful for my mother, who lives in Honolulu," Pyle said. "(Bryan) was her father."

Bryan also had numerous published works on Hawaiian insects and birds between 1926 and 1958 and wrote several popular books on astronomy and stargazing from Hawaii.

The species is the smallest shearwater known to exist, according to Andreanna Welch and Rob Fleischer, Smithsonian ornithologists. It is estimated the shearwater "separated from other species of shearwaters more than 2 million years ago."

Bryan’s shearwaters might possibly be extinct.

"We don’t believe that Bryan’s shearwaters breed regularly on Midway or other Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, based on the extensive seabird work in these islands performed during the Pacific Seabird Project," Pyle said of the single observation of the species during the 1963-68 project. "They would have encountered more Bryan’s shearwaters if they bred regularly in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands."