Natural History Wanderings

Updated 8/30/11

For the first time in almost four decades, a new bird species has been discovered in the United States. However, it was a dead bird in a museum. The new bird is Bryan’s Shearwater whose scientific name is Puffinus bryani after Edwin Bryan, a former curator at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu.  The specimen was collected in 1963 and had originally been identified as a Little Shearwater. Genetic evidence proved otherwise. Although a live bird has yet to be found, Peter Pyle who made the discovery believes there is a good chance that they may be found.  Read more at

• Wired Science Ornithologists Find First New U.S. Bird in 37 Years | Wired Science | Wired.com.
• National Geographic  First New U.S. Bird Species in Decades—Already Extinct?
• Condor A NEW SPECIES OF SHEARWATER (PUFFINUS) RECORDED FROM MIDWAY ATOLL, NORTHWESTERN HAWAIIAN ISLANDS