The New Caledonian storm petrel (''Fregetta lineata'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

in the family

Oceanitidae Austral storm petrels, or southern storm petrels, are seabirds in the Family (biology), family Oceanitidae, part of the order Procellariiformes. These smallest of seabirds feed on planktonic crustaceans and small fish picked from the surface, ty ...

. It is an

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found els ...

breeder to New Caledonia, and has a wider nonbreeding range throughout the

Coral Sea The Coral Sea () is a marginal sea of the South Pacific off the northeast coast of Australia, and classified as an interim Australian bioregion. The Coral Sea extends down the Australian northeast coast. Most of it is protected by the Fren ...

and the

South Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

, as far east as the

Marquesas The Marquesas Islands (; french: Îles Marquises or ' or '; Marquesan: ' (North Marquesan) and ' (South Marquesan), both meaning "the land of men") are a group of volcanic islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in ...

. Described in 1848, the New Caledonian storm petrel, alongside the closely related

New Zealand storm petrel The New Zealand storm petrel (''Fregetta maoriana'') is a small seabird of the family Oceanitidae. Thought to be extinct since 1850, a series of sightings from 2003 to the present indicates the presence of a previously unknown colony. , it is ...

(''F. maoriana'') which shares a similar streaked coloration, was long thought to merely be an aberrant member of another storm petrel species. The recognition of the New Zealand storm petrel as a valid species prompted a reevaluation of the New Caledonian storm petrel, and it was thus revived as a distinct species in 2022. It is thought to be critically endangered, with an adult population of only 100 - 1,000 pairs.

References

Birds described in 1848 Fregetta Endemic birds of New Caledonia Taxa named by Titian Peale {{Procellariiformes-stub