Cook's Petrel

Pterodroma cookii - Pétrel de Cook

Systematics

Order
:
Procellariiformes
Family
:
Procellariidés
Genus
:
Pterodroma
Species
:
cookii

Descriptor

Gray, GR, 1843

Biometrics

Size
: 30 cm
Wingspan
: 65 à 66 cm.
Weight
:

Geographic range

Distribution

Identification

Small seabird, pale with an exceptionally long and thin black beak. White forehead, extending like a barely marked eyebrow over a dark bar below the eye and behind it. The upperparts are palish grey, with slightly darker flight feathers. A broad V-shaped, brown-black band crosses the upper parts joining one wrist to the other and passing through the rump. The undersides are almost purely white. The tips of the flight feathers are dark, as is the border of the first primary flight feathers. A half-black parenthesis starts from the wrist towards the body of the bird. This last character allows to distinguish this species of Pterodroma nigripennis, the only species with which the risk of confusion exists. This species is known as Cook's Petrel.

Subspecific information monotypic species

Foreign names

Pétrel de Cook,
Petrel de Cook,
freira-de-testa-azul,
Cooksturmvogel,
maori hojsza,
Cooks Stormvogel,
Petrello di Cook,
cookpetrell,
Flaggermuspetrell,
tajfúnnik malý,
buřňák Cookův,
Grå Petrel,
pikkuviistäjä,
petrell de Cook,
petrel nowozelandzki,
Kuka vētrasputns,
Тайфунник Кука,
ハジロシロハラミズナギドリ,
黑脚圆尾鹱,
maoripetrell,
庫克氏圓尾鸌,

Voice song and cries

play
pause

Habitat

Nests in burrows on the wooded slopes of some islets up to 700 m above sea level. Comes ashore only at colonies during the breeding season. Outside of this period, this petrel is entirely pelagic.

Behaviour character trait

It is a rather solitary bird that does not approach the coasts outside of the breeding season. When fishing, Cook's Petrel captures its prey at the surface of the water, especially at night.

Dietfeeding habits

They mainly capture squids, but don't disdain small fish, crustaceans and even carrion.

Reproduction nesting

Breeding begins in the austral spring (October-November) in loosely organized colonies. As with all petrels, only one egg is laid. Incubation lasts about 7 weeks. The young leave the nest at around 3 months of age.

Geographic range

Cook's Petrel is an endemic species of New Zealand which breeds for certain on two islands, Little Barrier off the North Island, and Codfish at the extreme south of the archipelago. It could also breed on Great Barrier. Non-breeders disperse into the Pacific Ocean as far as off the coast of Kamchatka and Canadian coasts, between 34° south and 30° north.

Threats - protection

IUCN conservation status

Extinct

Threatened

Least
concern

Extinc
in the Wild

Near
threatened

Not
evaluated

EX EW CR EN VU NT LC NE

The species is classified as ENDANGERED by BirdLife. The global population is only a little bit over 50,000 pairs. The population of Codfish, could be up to 20,000 pairs in the beginning of the 20th century, now only counts about one hundred and the species might have disappeared from Great Barrier. The regression is above all due to predation by cats (eliminated from Little Barrier since 1980). Another predator, the Weka rail, that had been introduced in Codfish, has been eliminated. The eradication of the rat Rattus exulans is in progress.