About Pterodroma neglecta (Schlegel, 1863)
The Kermadec petrel (Pterodroma neglecta) is a species of gadfly petrel in the family Procellariidae. It measures 38 cm in length with a 100 cm wingspan. This species is polymorphic, with known light, dark, and intermediate morphs. Its diet consists of squid, fish, and other marine creatures.
This petrel breeds across the Pacific Ocean, from Lord Howe Island to the Juan Fernández Islands. It is rarely recorded west of Lord Howe Island, where it maintains a small colony of fewer than 100 individuals on Balls Pyramid. While it bred in some numbers on the main islands in the past, this is no longer considered likely to occur today.
The Kermadec Islands are the only location within New Zealand where this species breeds, and breeding occurs across multiple islands in the archipelago: Nugent, Napier, Meyer, Dayrell, North Chanter, Macauley, Haszard, and Cheeseman Islands. Because of predation from cats and rats, it no longer breeds on Raoul Island, where it had an estimated population of around 500,000 individuals in 1908.
Little is known about the species' breeding pattern at Balls Pyramid, but it typically nests there in late summer. This nesting timing matches the breeding patterns of other Kermadec Islands birds. The larger of the species' two accepted subspecies, P. n. juana, also breeds on Round Island off the coast of Mauritius, where it may sometimes hybridize with the Trindade petrel.
The Kermadec petrel occurs as a vagrant in Hawaii, Australia, and New Zealand. Reported vagrant records from Pennsylvania and North Carolina in the United States, as well as from the United Kingdom, are considered dubious.
