The Scientific name of the Northern Buller’s Albatross is confirmed as correct

Northern Buller’s Albatrosses on Rosemary Rock, photograph by Kevin Parker

Manuel Schweizer (Naturhistorisches Museum Bern, Switzerland) and colleagues have published  in the ornithological journal Notornis on the correct scientific name of the Northern Buller’s Albatross Thalassarche bulleri platei.

The holotype of Thalassarche bulleri platei at the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin (from the publication)

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Buller’s albatross Thalassarche bulleri is generally considered to comprise two subspecies: T. b. bulleri, which breeds on islands south of the South Island, New Zealand; and T. b. platei, which nests on the Three Kings Islands, off the northern tip of of the North Island, and on outlying islets of the Chatham Islands east of New Zealand.  Although the name platei has been widely applied to the latter population, some authors have suggested that its type specimen is in fact a juvenile T. b. bulleri. As a result, those birds breeding in the Chatham and Three Kings groups have sometimes been considered to represent an unnamed subspecies, or even species, given recent evidence of their genetic differentiation.

Because our own morphological examination of the specimen was inconclusive as to which population the type of platei belongs, we subjected the individual to molecular testing.  From this, we can confirm that the name platei has been correctly applied to the northern population of Buller’s albatross.

Reference:

Schweizer, M., Frahnert, S., Shepherd, L., Miskelly, C., Tennyson, A., Bretagnolle, V., Shirihai, H. & Kirwan G. 2024.  Genetic data confirm that Diomedea platei Reichenow, 1898, is the correct name for the population of Buller’s albatross Thalassarche bulleri breeding at the Chatham Islands, New Zealand.  Notornis 71: 165-175.