An Observation of Fea's Petrel, Pterodroma feae 



(Procellariiformes: Procellariidae), Off the 



Southeastern United States, With Comments on the Taxonomy 



and Conservation of Soft-plumaged and Related Petrels 



in the Atlantic Ocean 



J. Christopher Haney 1 



Biology Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 



Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543, 



Craig A. Faanes 



U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 203 West Second Street, 



Grand Island, Nebraska 68801, 



AND 



William R. P. Bourne 



Zoology Department, Aberdeen University, Tilly drone Avenue, 



Aberdeen AB9 2TN, Scotland 



ABSTRACT — The soft-plumaged petrel and related species {Pterodroma 

 spp.) remain one of the most poorly known seabird taxa in the 

 Atlantic Ocean, and there is cause for serious concern over the 

 continued survival of two North Atlantic forms. Soft-plumaged pet- 

 rels were formerly considered to be a single, albeit morphologi- 

 cally variable, complex of one species. However, taxonomists now 

 generally consider the complex to contain at least three species 

 including the nominate. We report a marine occurrence of a North 

 Atlantic species, probably Fea's petrel P. feae, from the South At- 

 lantic Bight off the coast of the southeastern United States. We 

 describe morphological characteristics for separating the various forms 

 and consider the recent at-sea sightings in relation to dispersal fac- 

 tors such as seasonal wind regimes and coassociation with other 

 seabird species that regularly disperse to western sectors from east- 

 ern sectors in the North Atlantic Ocean. 



Gadfly petrels in the genus Pterodroma are known to disperse 

 widely over the world's oceans, often at considerable distances from 

 their natal colonies (Bourne 1967). Soft-plumaged petrels, P. mollis 

 (Gould), are medium-sized gadfly petrels breeding in the Atlantic Ocean, 

 the southern Indian Ocean, and the South Pacific Ocean. Although 

 widely distributed, the number of island colonies is limited, and relative- 

 present address: Wildlife Technology Program, School of Forest Resources, Pennsylvania 

 State University, College Place, DuBois, Pennsylvania 15801-3199. 



Brimleyana 18:115-123, June 1993 115 



