Одубонның қызылқұйрық теңіз құсы

Species of bird

Audubon's shearwater (Puffinus lherminieri) is a common tropical seabird in the petrel family. Sometimes known as the dusky backed shearwater, the specific epithet honours the French naturalist Félix Louis L'Herminier. Certain populations are known variously as Baillon's shearwater, tropical shearwater, Bannerman's shearwater, Mascarene shearwater and Persian shearwater; some of these are considered distinct species by various authors. In general appearance, it is a small shearwater, black above and white below and hard to distinguish from its relatives at first glance. Both parents share the responsibility of incubating the single white egg (measurements of 52.5 by 36.2 mm and a weight of 37 g have been recorded for one specimen of average size

Audubon's shearwater belongs to the Puffinus sensu stricto group of mid sized and small shearwaters, which is related to the genus Calonectris. The taxonomy of this species is extremely confusing. It is occasionally listed as a subspecies of P. assimilis (the little shearwater), but they do not appear to be that closely related. Rather, P. lherminieri seems to belong to an ill resolved clade also including such species as the little shearwater, the Manx shearwater (P. puffinus) or the black vented shearwater (P. opisthomelas). The little known Heinroth's shearwater (P. heinrothi) is sometimes considered a subspecies of either Audubon's or the little shearwater. Though it is likely to be another member of that close knit group, its actual relationships remain uncertain due to lack of specimens. Audubon's shearwater itself has around 10 subspecies. Several have at one time or another been suggested to constitute separate species. For example, the Galápagos Islands population has turned out to be a very distinct species, the Galápagos shearwater (P. subalaris); it is apparently related to the Christmas shearwater (P. nativitatis) and together with it constitutes an ancient lineage without other close relatives in the genus. Other taxa were initially assigned to the little shearwater and later moved to Audubon's. Analysis of mtDNA cytochrome b sequence data – which is of somewhat limited value in procellariiform birds however – indicates that at least three major clades can be distinguished:

Puffinus lherminieri lherminieri Lesson, 1839 – breeds throughout the Caribbean, on the Bahamas and formerly on Bermuda; ranges throughout the Caribbean and up the North American Atlantic coast up to southern Canada, with vagrants having been recorded off north eastern Canada. Many taxonomists consider both Boyd's and Barolo shearwaters distinct species, depending on whether biogeography and morphological differences or the genetic similarity are considered more significant, and what other lineages are considered distinct from P. lherminieri in a particular treatment. The southern Caribbean birds were separated as P. l. loyemilleri, but are not distinct. This group is the most confusing of all. The subspecies dichrous occurs in two areas which appear to be separated by the whole of Indonesia and the seas surrounding it; the Pacific subpopulation includes the proposed subspecies polynesiae (Ta‘ū, American Samoa) and possibly gunax (see below), whereas the geographically separated Indian Ocean subpopulation contains the birds formerly separated as nicolae (NW Indian Ocean, from Aldabra to the Maldives) and colstoni (Aldabra, Arabian Sea). There appear to be no significant genetical or morphological differences between these birds, which is quite amazing given that the Pacific and Indian Ocean subpopulations must have been isolated for a fairly long time, and that no less than three unequivocally distinct subspecies (bailloni, persicus and temptator) occur within the range of Indian Ocean dichrous. On the other hand, the supposed species Mascarene shearwater (P. atrodorsalis) is inseparable morphologically and genetically from bailloni. Clearly, some mechanism blocking gene flow is at work, but what this is exactly remains unknown – though as remarked above, separate breeding seasons seem a reasonable assumption and are tentatively supported by the available field data. been proposed as a distinct species, Bannerman's shearwater (P. bannermani). In the absence of more recent data to investigate this claim, its status continues to be altogether unresolved, though the case for it being at least a distinct subspecies in the bailloni clade seems good.