First New U.S. Bird Species Identified in Decades May Be Extinct

Scientists have been able to confirm the first new bird species identified in the U.S. in nearly four decades, but say the tiny seabird discovered in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands may have gone extinct since its last sighting. Using DNA tests on a single sample found at the Midway Atoll in 1963, researchers from the Institution for Bird Populations and the Smithsonian Institution were able to identify a unique species of shearwater, Puffinus bryani. It is the smallest of 21 shearwater species, identifiable by its longer, blacker tail, according to the study published in the journal Condor. Researchers say the bird has been captured and photographed only one other time, in 1990. Rob Fleischer of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, and a co-author of the study, said the bird has not been sighted since, although “seabirds have a habit of hiding — they’re long-lived, so they can be out at sea for a long time.” The new shearwater is the first new bird species named in the U.S. since the po’ouli was discovered on the island of Maui in 1974. Meanwhile, a new bird survey in Europe has found that songbird populations that have been declining in England are now thriving in Scotland.