New bird species found in Ogasawara Islands

Japan

Monday, January 29, 21:40

Researchers say they have found a new seabird species indigenous to the Ogasawara Islands, a UNESCO World Heritage site some 1,000 kilometers south of Japan's main island.

The scientists, including those from the Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, say the seabirds were previously considered a subspecies of Audubon's shearwater.

The shearwaters are widely distributed across the Pacific Ocean. They have black backs and a white underbody. They build nests in crevices in rocks.

The research team studied DNA samples from 10 of the seabirds in question and found that they are a separate species from Audubon's shearwater.

It says the seabirds are confirmed to breed exclusively on two of the Ogasawara Islands.

The finding brings the number of indigenous bird species that inhabit the islands to 4.

One of the researchers, Kazuto Kawakami, says the discovery adds to the value of the Ogasawara Islands as a world heritage site.

He says the birds should be protected because they are likely to be vulnerable to non-native predators.

Source  

Bryan’s Shearwater is confirmed breeding in Japan’s Ogasawara Islands

News is now in of the confirmation of breeding by the Critically Endangered shearwater with an incubating bird being discovered on Higashijima Island in the Ogasawaras, as described below by the Mainichi Japan of 25 March.

"A team of scientists has confirmed a nesting site of an endangered seabird species once thought to have gone extinct on the Ogasawara island chain, it has been learned -- the first time a nesting site of the species has ever been discovered.

The species, "Bryan's Shearwater," whose body length ranges between 27 and 30 centimeters, was believed to have gone extinct after it was last seen on Midway Atoll in 1991. Scientists conducted DNA testing on seabirds found on the Ogasawara Islands -- which have been recognized as a UNESCO world natural heritage site -- between 1997 and 2011, as their features matched those of the Bryan's Shearwater.

In 2012, it was confirmed that the birds were indeed members of the Bryan's Shearwater species. The Ministry of the Environment subsequently included the birds in the Red List as a critically endangered "IA" species.

In the latest discovery, scientists including Kazuto Kawakami, a senior researcher at the Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, went ashore on several uninhabited islands of the Ogasawaras during the night, and searched for the rare bird by observing its high-pitched cry.

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