Beck's Petrel: Discovered after 80 Years 
Pakistan Times Special Report

A pale-bellied bird species last seen in the 1920s and long thought to be extinct has been rediscovered near Papua New Guinea.

The Beck's petrel was photographed last summer by an Israeli ornithologist in the Bismarck Archipelago, a group of islands northeast of Papua New Guinea.

Hadoram Shirihai, who led an expedition to find the seabird, returned with photographs of more than 30 of the birds and a freshly dead specimen found at sea — evidence that has so far convinced several experts.

Shirihai's photographs and his report were published in "The Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club" on Friday.

Britain's Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, and BirdLife International — a Cambridge conservation group — both said their committees of experts had reviewed Shirihai's evidence and agreed he had found Beck's petrel.

"I don't think there's much doubt about it," said BirdLife International spokesman Nick Askew.

The pictures are the first hard evidence of the Beck's petrel's existence since unconfirmed sightings of the bird were reported in Australia two years ago.
Beck's petrels are seabirds related to albatrosses and shearwaters.

They are dark brown with pale bellies and tube-like noses. Upon first glance they look similar to the Tahitian petrel, one of 66 petrel species, but Beck's are smaller and have narrower wings than the Tahitian variety.

The last known specimen of the Beck's petrel before its rediscovery was collected in 1929 and the species is currently categorized as critically endangered by BirdLife International.

Shirihai compared a dead petrel that he brought back with the data collected in the late 1920s by Rollo Beck — an American ornithologist after whom the bird is named — to verify that his was a genuine Beck's petrel.

Shirihai has previously helped discover several new species in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said. He is one of the very few people to have visited almost every sub-Antarctic island and the breeding grounds of all forms of albatrosses, the society said.

Similar discoveries have touched off controversy in the past.

In 2004, ornithologists in the United States took grainy videos of what they felt was an ivory-billed woodpecker, a magnificent bird thought extinct for decades.

After the 2005 announcement, other experts said the sighting in an Arkansas swamp seemed to be a more common woodpecker. Three years later the debate still goes on.

An earlier report had said that a bird species not seen for 80 years has been rediscovered near Papua New Guinea, experts said Monday.

The Beck's petrel, long thought to be extinct, was photographed last summer by an Israeli ornithologist in the Bismarck Archipelago, a group of islands northeast of New Guinea.

Britain's Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, and BirdLife International, a Cambridge conservation group, both said on Friday that their committees of experts had reviewed Shirihai's evidence and agreed he had found a Beck's petrel.

The last known specimen of the Beck's petrel before its rediscovery was collected in 1929 and the species is currently categorized as critically endangered by BirdLife International.

A bird not seen for almost 80 years has been discovered in the Pacific to the delight of conservationists.

And, according to Science Daily; A bird not seen for almost 80 years has been discovered in the Pacific to the delight of conservationists.

Only two records of Beck’s petrel existed previously, from the late 1920s when ornithologist Rollo Beck collected two of the tube-nosed seabirds on his quest for museum specimens from the region.

The small tube-nosed seabird was first described by Rollo Beck, an ornithologist and collector of museum specimens. The petrel, which now bears his name, was previously only known from two specimens he collected in 1928 and 1929 during an expedition to the region.

Now, an expert on a ship in the Bismarck Archipelago, north-east of Papua New Guinea, has photographed more than 30 Beck’s petrels and his account is being published March 7 in the Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. Young birds were amongst the group indicating that the birds have a breeding site close by.

Hadoram Shirihai, an ornithologist from Israel, led the two-week voyage last summer. He said: “I may have seen then in 2003 on a previous trip which made me eager to return. I wanted to know more about these amazing petrels and understand better how we can help them.

Confirming the existence of Beck’s Petrel was difficult because it is similar to Tahiti Petrel Pseudobulweria rostrata, few people have looked for it at sea, and it may be nocturnal at the breeding grounds. “There are numerous atolls and islands where it may breed”, said Dr Butchart. “However, the remaining population may be small.”

Hopes that the bird had not gone extinct were raised in Australia two years ago when tour guide Richard Baxter thought he had seen a Beck’s petrel in the Coral Sea off Queensland. Rare bird experts rejected this sighting because photos were not sufficiently clear. Hadoram Shirihai’s pictures of the species’ more recent appearance have left no doubt, however.

Identifying the dark, slender bird is complicated by its resemblance to another species, the Tahiti petrel.

And its protection could be hampered by several threats, including rats and cats at breeding grounds, which have yet to be found, and widespread logging and land clearance for palm oil plantations. Research last year revealed the extent of logging on New Britain, one of the islands making up Papua New Guinea.

Experts believe the Beck’s petrel may only visit nesting burrows at night, which will make its protection even more complex.

Dr Geoff Hilton, a senior biologist at the RSPB, said: “There are numerous atolls and islands in the region where the Beck’s petrel could be breeding and its remaining population may only be very small.

“Even so, the discovery of this ‘lost’ bird is fantastic news and we congratulate those who spent so much time and effort in finding it. It doesn’t get much better than finding a species that was long thought extinct. Now we must use this discovery as a new spur to try to save the bird.”●