Cook's Petrel Pterodroma cookii Scientific name definitions

The small, gray-and-white Cook’s Petrel is named in honor of the famous navigator and explorer, Captain James Cook, and is nowadays confined as a breeder to three islands off New Zealand, where considerable effort has been made to control both natural and introduced predators, although it was historically also widespread on the country’s mainland. For many years the species was in strong decline, but recent conservation efforts have led to significant increases in the population, at least on two of the breeding islands. As a result, although it is still treated as Vulnerable under IUCN criteria, the Cook’s Petrel is now considered to number over one million individuals. Between April and November, during the non-breeding season, this petrel ranges widely across the Pacific Ocean, where it is principally found between southern California, in the USA, and off Peru.