Nowadays, we usually spell Trindade w/ just one "i" though in the past we spelled it Trinidade. It's Portuguese for Trinity, so maybe we should call it Trinity Petrel instead. Or maybe we should change it to Arminjon's Petrel per Pterodroma arminjoiana.27 Apr 08: Andy Paterson (Torremolinos, España) wrote to say that Baroli's Shearwater has also been suggested as an option for Puffinus baroli. Not everyone in Spain is comfortable with 'Macaronesian Shearwater'.
27 Apr 08: Al Jaramillo (Half Moon Bay, California, USA) advised me that it should be the Desventuradas Islands ("The Unfortunate Islands") rather than the 'Des Venturadas' as I incorrectly copied from other sources. This remote Chilean archipelago (decimal coordinates -26.293°, -80.095°) consists of two significant islands, San Félix and San Ambrosio and hosts a number of breeding seabirds including almost the entire world population of De Filippi's (Masatierra) Petrels. The exact status of this species on the Juan Fernández Islands (-33.771°, -79.876°), some 513 miles to south is unclear but is probably in decline with only a few hundred breeding pairs.
29 Apr 08: Paul Hess (Natrona Heights, Pennsylvania, USA) provided a number of important corrections to names used in the previous blog entry including clarification that the correct Portuguese name is Ilha da Trindade [only one 'i'], not "Trinidade" as I and many others have spelled it. He also informs me that the AOU established an policy on English names in the 32nd Check-list Supplement (1973) and that adoption of Band-rumped Storm-Petrel was published in the 6th Edition of the AOU Checklist, although regrettably without providing an explicit rationale for the change.
29 Apr 08: Anyone interested in the evolution of bird names in general might want to checkout the History of North American Bird Names web page. It compares the names used in American Ornithologists' Union Checklists from 1886 until 2000. To pluck one example at random: European Blue Heron becomes European Heron and ends up as Gray Heron.
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