Cook's Petrel

Pterodroma cookii (Gray, GR, 1843)

Cook's Petrel, Pterodroma cookii, breeds on Great Barrier Island, Little Barrier Island and Codfish Island in New Zealand, and spends the rest of the year across the Pacific Ocean, reaching the Tasman Sea, waters off south-east Australia, the north-east to south-east Pacific, and the west coast from north-west Mexico to Chile. It is a Procellariiform seabird in the petrel family. Its breeding sites are limited to three small islands, which is its key distinguishing feature. The species was described by Gray in 1843.

Order

Procellariiformes

Family

Procellariidae — Petrels, Shearwaters, Diving Petrels

Breeding range

Pacific Ocean: Great and Little Barrier is. (off ne North I.) and Codfish I. (=Whenua Hou, nw of Stewart I.; New Zealand)

Nonbreeding range

to Tasman Sea, off se Australia and ne to se Pacific Ocean off Aleutian Is. and w Pacific coast from nw Mexico to Chile