TOWNSEND'S SHEARWATER

'Townsend's Shearwater', ''Puffinus auricularis'' is a rare seabird of the tropics from the family Procellariidae.
Its relationships are unresolved. Its closest relatives are probably but not certainly the Hawaiian Shearwater (''Puffinus newelli'') and possibly the Manx Shearwater (''Puffinus puffinus'') (Austin, 1996; Austin ''et al'', 2004). It formerly contained the former as a subspecies and was long considered a subspecies of the latter. The relationship of the Rapa Shearwater, ''P. (newelli) myrtae'' in regards to these species are also in need of research; this taxon was until recently placed in ''P.assimilis'' (Austin ''et al'', 2004).
This species breeds around Cerro Evermann on Isla Socorro in the Revillagigedo Islands, Mexico. The main threat to this species comes from feral cats introduced to Socorro in the early 1970s. Sheep are also destroying breeding habitat. The species bred on Isla Clarión until 1988, where habitat and nesting sites were destroyed by introduced pigs, sheep and rabbits.

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References

★ 'Austin', Jeremy J. (1996): Molecular Phylogenetics of ''Puffinus'' Shearwaters: Preliminary Evidence from Mitochondrial Cytochrome ''b'' Gene Sequences. ''Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution'' '6'(1): 77–88. (HTML abstract)

★ 'Austin', Jeremy J.; Bretagnolle, Vincent & Pasquet, Eric (2004): A global molecular phylogeny of the small ''Puffinus'' shearwaters and implications for systematics of the Little-Audubon's Shearwater complex. ''Auk'' '121'(3): 847–864. DOI: 10.1642/0004-8038(2004)121[0847:AGMPOT]2.0.CO;2 HTML abstract

★ Database entry includes a range map and justification for why this species is critically endangered

External link

★ BirdLife Species Factsheet