The pink-footed shearwater (''Ardenna creatopus'') is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adaptation, adapted to life within the marine ecosystem, marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent ...

. The

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

is in length, with a wingspan. It is polymorphic, having both darker- and lighter-phase populations. Together with the equally light-billed

flesh-footed shearwater The flesh-footed shearwater'' (''Ardenna carneipes; formerly ''Puffinus carneipes''), is a medium-large shearwater that mainly inhabits the Indo-Pacific. Its plumage is black with pale pinkish feet, and a pale bill with a distinct black tip. Tog ...

, it forms the ''Hemipuffinus'' group, a

superspecies In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each oth ...

that may or may not have an

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

relative in the great shearwater. These are large shearwaters which are among those that could be separated in the genus ''Ardenna''. A

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

study published in 2021 found very little genetic difference between the pink-footed shearwater and the

(''Ardenna carneipes''). The authors of the study suggested that these two taxa might be better considered as

conspecific Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species. Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organism ...

. This species is

pelagic The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean and can be further divided into regions by depth. The word ''pelagic'' is derived . The pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or water column between the sur ...

, occurring in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

. It predominantly nests on offshore islands off

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

, i.e.

Mocha Island Mocha Island ( ) is a Chilean island located west of the coast of Arauco Province in the Pacific Ocean. The island is the location of numerous historic shipwrecks. In Mapuche mythology, the souls of dead people travel west to visit this island. ...

. It is a transequatorial migrant, moving toward subarctic waters of the Pacific after raising its young. It is fairly common well off the West Coast of the United States during the country's warmer months. The pink-footed shearwater feeds on mainly

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

squid A squid (: squid) is a mollusc with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight cephalopod limb, arms, and two tentacles in the orders Myopsida, Oegopsida, and Bathyteuthida (though many other molluscs within the broader Neocoleoidea are also ...

, and

crustaceans Crustaceans (from Latin meaning: "those with shells" or "crusted ones") are invertebrate animals that constitute one group of Arthropod, arthropods that are traditionally a part of the subphylum Crustacea (), a large, diverse group of mainly aquat ...

. This bird nests in burrows, preferring

forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...

ed slopes. It is a colonial nester. Numbers of this shearwater have been reduced due to predation by

introduced species An introduced species, alien species, exotic species, adventive species, immigrant species, foreign species, non-indigenous species, or non-native species is a species living outside its native distributional range, but which has arrived ther ...

, such as

rat Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents. Species of rats are found throughout the order Rodentia, but stereotypical rats are found in the genus ''Rattus''. Other rat genera include '' Neotoma'' (pack rats), '' Bandicota'' (bandicoo ...

s and

cat The cat (''Felis catus''), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the ...

s. Some loss of birds also occurs from becoming entangled in

fishing gear Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...

. The pink-footed shearwater is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels applies.

References

External links

Pink-footed shearwater photos
pink-footed shearwater Birds of Chile Birds of the Pacific Ocean Western North American coastal fauna Western South American coastal birds pink-footed shearwater {{Procellariiformes-stub

References

Further reading

External links