Rapa shearwater

Rapa shearwater
Conservation status
Not recognized (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Procellariiformes
Family:	Procellariidae
Genus:	Puffinus
Species:	P. myrtae
Binomial name
Puffinus myrtae Bourne, 1959
Synonyms
Puffinus newelli myrtae Puffinus assimilis myrtae Puffinus auricularis myrtae

The Rapa shearwater (Puffinus myrtae), is a rare seabird of the tropics from the family Procellariidae. It breeds on the island of Rapa in the Austral Islands of French Polynesia where it is known locally as the kaki kaki.

Its relationship is confusing. Its closest relatives are probably, but not certainly, the Hawaiian shearwater (Puffinus newelli) and possibly the little shearwater (Puffinus assimilis). It used to be included in the former as a subspecies and was long considered a subspecies of the latter.

References

• Austin, Jeremy J. (1996): Molecular Phylogenetics of Puffinus Shearwaters: Preliminary Evidence from Mitochondrial Cytochrome b Gene Sequences. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 6(1): 77–88. doi:10.1006/mpev.1996.0060 (HTML abstract)
• Austin, Jeremy J.; Bretagnolle, Vincent & Pasquet, Eric (2004): A global molecular phylogeny of the small Puffinus shearwaters and implications for systematics of the Little-Audubon's Shearwater complex. Auk 121(3): 847–864. DOI: 10.1642/0004-8038(2004)121[0847:AGMPOT]2.0.CO;2 HTML abstract