Hutton's shearwater
| Hutton's shearwater | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Procellariiformes |
| Family: | Procellariidae |
| Genus: | Puffinus |
| Species: | P. huttoni |
| Binomial name | |
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Puffinus huttoni Matthews, 1912 |
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Hutton's shearwater (Puffinus huttoni) or kaikoura tītī is a medium-sized ocean-going seabird in the family Procellariidae. Its range is Australian and New Zealand waters, but it breeds only in mainland New Zealand, in just two remaining alpine colonies in the Seaward Kaikoura Range. Because six other colonies have been wiped out by introduced pigs, a protected artificial colony has been established near the town of Kaikoura.
The bird's name commemorates Frederick Wollaston Hutton, a former curator of the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch, New Zealand. A medium-sized (350 g) seabird, with a 75 cm wingspan, it is brown with a white underbelly and brown collar, dark borders to the underwing, dark grey bill, and pinkish dark-webbed feet; it can be distinguished from fluttering shearwater by its dark grey "armpits". At a breeding colony it has a loud cackling call.
Hutton's shearwater feeds in the open ocean largely on small fish and krill, diving up to 20 m.Puffinus huttoni have long bills, which are adapted to catch prey more or less underwater by plunging from a few meters above the surface or by paddling slowly forwards searching with their head submerged, then diving using partly opened wings for propulsion.
These birds live entirely at sea except when breeding. During the September–March (spring and summer) breeding season, adults migrate to New Zealand waters; there have been individual sightings around the entire New Zealand coast, but most birds are feeding off the eastern South Island, especially between Cook Strait and Banks Peninsula. Large flocks can be seen off the Kaikoura coast during summer. Outside the breeding season, they are mostly found in Australian waters. Geo-locators fitted on young birds revealed some circumnavigate Australia in an anti-clockwise direction in the 4–5 years leading up to sexual maturity.
Uniquely amongst seabirds, Hutton's shearwater breed in the sub-alpine to alpine zones, in burrows at an altitude of 1200–1800 m. They formerly bred in both the Seaward and Inland Kaikoura mountains in historic times, and Māori collected the young "muttonbirds" for food. Their breeding is restricted to only two remaining colonies in the Seaward Kaikoura Range, one of over 100,000 pairs at the head of the Kowhai River, and one small (8000 pair) colony on private land at Shearwater Stream. Although the species was scientifically described in 1912, its breeding colonies were only rediscovered in 1964. Burrows are dug into steep tussock slopes at a density of 1 per 2 m2. One white egg is laid in November and incubated for 50 days; chicks take around 80 days to fledge.
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Wikipedia