A census of Chatham Island shag (Leucocarbo onslowi) and Pitt Island shag (Strictocarbo featherstoni), both endemic to the Chatham Islands, New Zealand, was conducted during their 2003/04 breeding season. Totals of 271 pairs of Chatham Island shags and 547 pairs of Pitt Island shags were recorded. Compared with the only previous survey (in 1997/98), numbers of both species were significantly lower. This decline most likely reflects broad scale marine changes affecting the birds’ food supply. Alternatively, it may suggest variability in the timing of breeding between seasons.
Corrections to figures and legends in McAllan, I.A.W.; Hobcroft, D. 2005. The further spread of introduced birds in Samoa. 52(1): 16-20
Foraging of female rockhopper penguins (Eudyptes chrysocome filholi) during the chick stage was investigated at Antipodes Islands during December 2002 – January 2003. During the guard stage eight birds were tracked to foraging areas 22 – 54 km NNE or E from their nests. Birds foraging NNE did so over waters 500-1500 m deep, while those that travelled E foraged in water > 1500 m deep. The mean duration of these foraging trips was 1.37 days, significantly (p 1500 m deep. Male parents guarded the chicks more or less continuously, with most females returning to feed the chicks from mid afternoon. In the post-guard stage, most male parents returned to the nest each evening, but fewer females attended the nest at this time. Weight increases indicated that chicks were fed, on average, about once per day during both the guard and early post-guard stages. The foraging trips of female rockhopper penguins at Antipodes Islands were usually of longer duration and extended farther from the nest than birds breeding at Amsterdam, Kerguelen and Crozet Islands, but occupied a similar time and covered a greater distance than birds breeding at Staten Island. However, they were of considerably shorter duration and distance than birds breeding at Macquarie Island. This may be related to the differing marine environments around each of these breeding locations.
A trial translocation to establish a new fluttering shearwater (Puffinus gavia) colony is reported. From 1991 to 1996, 334 fluttering shearwater chicks were transferred from Long Island to Maud Island, Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand. Chicks were artificially housed and hand-fed until fledging. Overall fledging success was 82%, 32 of the 273 chicks that fledged returned to Maud Island, and 30 have bred. Mean age of fi rst breeding was 6.8 years (range 5-10 years). Returning chicks were heavier at fledging and spent longer on Maud Island than chicks that did not return. Transferred chicks showed typical post-fledging behaviour by dispersing to southeast Australian waters. The new colony has gradually increased, and 15 pairs bred in 2003/04. Methods developed have application to endangered species management.
The Antipodean wandering albatross (Diomedea antipodensis) is endemic to Antipodes Island in the New Zealand subantarctic. A programme of regular census and population study was initiated on Antipodes Island in 1994 to determine the status of the species. This paper reports on field work carried out every summer from 1994 to 2005. Aspects of breeding biology are described and compared with those of other species of wandering albatross, particularly the closely related Gibson’s wandering albatross (D. gibsoni) on Adams Island. Average annual survival over 10 years was 0.957. Productivity was measured over 11 years and averaged 0.74 chicks per nesting pair. Survivorship was similar to that in the increasing Diomedea exulans population on Crozet Island, and productivity higher than recorded in all other wandering albatross populations. Between 1994 and 1997, the average annual number of pairs nesting on Antipodes Island was 5136. There is evidence of population decline during the 1970s but numbers are now increasing.
Observations of birds on Antipodes Islands during 24 April – 6 June 2001 represent a season of the year for which data are lacking. Activity ashore of non-breeders of summer-breeding gadfly petrels Pterodroma spp. and black- bellied storm petrels (Fregetta tropica) continued until late May or even June. Data were obtained on the non-breeding behaviour, breeding cycle and burrow occupancy rates of grey petrels (Procellaria cinerea); only 50% of their burrows were occupied by breeding pairs. White-capped albatross (Thalassarche steadi) fledglings on Bollons Island were counted. There had been an autumnal immigration of some Passerines. Birds seen at sea on the voyages from Akaroa, Banks Peninsula and returning to Port Chalmers, Dunedin included the rarely-sighted Chatham taiko (Pterodroma magentae).
We examine whether mist-netting and handling of birds (including taking blood samples) during the pre-nesting period caused egg-laying to be delayed in a threatened species, South Island saddleback (tïeke) Philesturnus carunculatus carunculatus. We used data on egg-laying dates of first clutches for 12 pairs in 2002-03 and 22 pairs in 2003- 04, of which 3 (2002-03) and 7 (2003-04) pairs had been caught and handled. There was a significant delay in the peak laying period of first clutches in 2003-04, which was associated with more birds being caught and handled. However, pairs that were handled showed typical laying dates of first clutches for both experienced and inexperienced pairs, and there was no significant correlation between the date when a pair was caught and the date of laying its first clutch. There were also no significant differences between handled and non-handled pairs in the number of chicks raised or fledged. Like saddlebacks, Stewart Island robins Petroica australis rakiura monitored at the same site showed a two-week delay in the average laying dates of first clutches in 2003-04. The five inexperienced robin pairs in 2002-03 laid their first clutches earlier in 2003-04, but all three experienced pairs laid later. Weather data indicated it was substantially colder before the nesting period in 2003 compared to 2002, suggesting that colder weather conditions plus a greater number of inexperienced pairs caused a delay in peak egg laying in both species in 2003-04 relative to 2002-03. We conclude that mist-netting, banding and bleeding – standard technique used in present-day research of threatened avian species – did not have any measured short-term effects on nesting behaviour or breeding success of South Island saddlebacks.
Specimens of 12 species of birds from New Zealand and the Society Islands collected during Cook’s second voyage round the world (1772-1775) were described and illustrated by Anders Sparrman in Museum Carlsonianum (1786-1789). The Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm holds six specimens considered to be type specimens of some of those species. However, documentation discussed here indicates only three, spotted shag (Stictocarbo punctatus) and red-crowned parakeet (Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae novaezelandiae) from New Zealand, and Tahiti lorikeet (Vini peruviana) from the Society Islands, are type specimens.
Kermadec petrels (Pterodroma neglecta) are shown to be resident in the Atlantic Ocean, breeding at Ilha da Trindade, off Brazil, South Atlantic Ocean and migrating to the North Atlantic. Previously mistaken for Trindade petrels (Pterodroma arminjoniana) at Ilha da Trindade, they were identified by the whitish shafts and largely white inner webs of their primaries and, at the colony, by their distinctive call. Records of five non-breeding Kermadec petrels in the North Atlantic Ocean include the first Atlantic specimen from western United Kingdom in 1908. All of eight identifications of Kermadec petrels from Atlantic waters were dark phase birds, like those identified from the Indian Ocean, though, in the Pacific Ocean, the species is polymorphic. Trindade petrels from Ilha da Trindade are mostly the light phase (59%, n = 71), outnumber Kermadec petrels there by about 20:1 in collections, and disperse into the North Atlantic Ocean. As 70% (n = 43) of these two species combined observed at sea in the North Atlantic were dark phase, about 49% of North Atlantic records may have been Kermadec petrels. As they are in Pacific waters, Kermadec petrels may be more migratory and reach higher latitudes than do Trindade petrels. The Halipeurus feather louse hosted by Kermadec petrels in the Pacific Ocean has been identified from both petrels in Atlantic waters, but that hosted by Trindade petrels elsewhere has not been reported from Atlantic waters, possibly indicating earliest colonisation by Kermadec petrels. The morphometrics of Trindade petrels in the Atlantic Ocean cannot be established accurately until the generally larger Kermadec petrels are excluded from data sets.