Endangered
Hawaiian Petrel
Pterodroma sandwichensis
The Hawaiian petrel or ʻuaʻu is a large, dark grey-brown and white petrel that is endemic to Hawaiʻi.
Appearance
The Hawaiian petrel or ʻuaʻu is a large, dark grey-brown and white petrel that is endemic to Hawaiʻi.
Range and habitat
The Hawaiian petrel was formerly found on all the main Hawaiian Islands except Niʻihau, but today it is mostly restricted to Haleakalā crater on Maui. Smaller populations exist on Mauna Loa on the island of Hawaiʻi, Waimea Canyon on the island of Kauaʻi, Lānaʻihale on Lānaʻi, and possibly Molokaʻi. It was formerly lumped together with a very similar species from the Galapagos Islands. In 2013 a specimen was retrieved from Arizona near the Colorado River, marking the first inland North America record of this species.
In Haleakalā National Park, great efforts are being made to reduce the number of feral animals, to preserve not only the Hawaiian petrel, but also many other rare Hawaiian birds that fall victim to predation. The Hawaiian petrel was once considered conspecific with the dark-rumped petrel of the Galápagos islands, but was recently split to its own species.
Habitat labels include grassland, shrubland, and forest.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
Their diet consists of 50–75% squid, and smaller percentages of fish and crustaceans. Their breeding season extends from March to October.
The female lays one white egg. When the chick hatches, the parents go out to sea and feed during the day, and return only at night.
In crisis
The Hawaiian petrel is an endangered species. In addition to loss of habitat from development, the greatest threats to the petrel are feral cats, small Asian mongooses, and rats, all of that feed on the helpless chicks when they are inside their burrows. Biologists didn't have an accurate count of how many of the species remained, but estimated fewer than 1,000 nested on Haleakalā volcano, their primary nesting area.
Hawaiian Petrel is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Hawaiian Petrel, Wikidata item Q524533. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
