CreatureData

Rapa shearwater

Puffinus myrtae Bourne, 1959

CRCritically Endangeredbirds

The rapa shearwater (Puffinus myrtae) is a species in the family Procellariidae, order Procellariiformes. Recorded adults weigh about 350.8 g. Its IUCN Red List status is Critically Endangered.

Rapa shearwater (Puffinus myrtae)
Photo: Don Faulkner · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Quick facts about the rapa shearwater

Weight
350.8 gsrc for Weight
Length
Not recorded
Lifespan
Not recorded
Diet
Aquatic predatorsrc for Diet
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
marinesrc for Habitat
Young per litter or clutch
Not recorded
Lifestyle
Generalistsrc for Lifestyle
Migration
Partialsrc for Migration
Conservation status
Critically Endangered (IUCN)src for Conservation status
Countries on record
Not recorded

Where does the rapa shearwater live?

Not recorded

What is the rapa shearwater?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

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

The Rapa shearwater was first described in 1959 as a subspecies of the little shearwater. The holotype was later found to be a juvenile and an adult specimen was described in 2017.

A 2015 genetic study using DNA sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene, found that the Rapa shearwater is sister to a clade containing the Hawaiian shearwater (Puffinus newelli) and the little shearwater (Puffinus assimilis). Morphological data supports this relationship but the Rapa shearwater is much smaller than the other two species.

Not much is known about its decline. It most likely once occurred on Rapa itself, though this population has been extirpated by the polynesian rat, feral goats, and feral cats.

From the Wikipedia article “Rapa shearwater” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rapa_shearwater&oldid=1347769936), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.

Is the rapa shearwater endangered?

The rapa shearwater is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List: it faces an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.

  1. LCLeast Concern
  2. NTNear Threatened
  3. VUVulnerable
  4. ENEndangered
  5. CRCritically Endangered
  6. EWExtinct in the Wild
  7. EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Critically Endangered species. What the categories mean.

How is the rapa shearwater classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classAves
  4. orderProcellariiformes
  5. familyProcellariidae
  6. genusPuffinus
  7. SpeciesPuffinus myrtae Bourne, 1959

Synonyms Puffinus assimilis myrtae, Puffinus auricularis myrtae, Puffinus munda myrtae, Puffinus newelli myrtae

Other names and names in other languages (23)
  • جلم الماء راباArabic
  • buřňák rapaitskýCzech
  • Rapa SkråpeDanish
  • RapasturmtaucherGerman
  • HawaiisturmtaucherGerman
  • rapaa pufinoEsperanto
  • Pardela de RapaSpanish
  • Puffin de RapaFrench
  • Berta di RapaItalian
  • ラパセグロミズナギドリJapanese
  • RapapijlstormvogelDutch
  • rapalireNorwegian
  • burzyk polinezyjskiPolish
  • pardela-de-rapaPortuguese
  • fura-bucho-de-rapaPortuguese
  • Табуайский буревестникRussian
  • víchrovník rapskýSlovak
  • Zovoj sa ostrva Rapa ItiSerbian
  • rapaliraSwedish
  • Rapa Adası YelkovanıTurkish
  • буревісник рапайськийUkrainian
  • 拉帕鸌Chinese
  • 拉帕鹱Chinese

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistTAXREFWikidataIUCN Red List

Relatives of the rapa shearwater

Other species in the same genus Puffinus.

CompareRapa shearwater vs Manx shearwaterRapa shearwater vs Balearic shearwaterRapa shearwater vs Sargasso shearwaterRapa shearwater vs Little shearwater

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the rapa shearwater?

An adult rapa shearwater weighs 350.8 g, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Is the rapa shearwater endangered?

The rapa shearwater is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List, meaning it faces an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.

What kind of animal is the rapa shearwater?

The rapa shearwater (Puffinus myrtae) belongs to the family Procellariidae in the order Procellariiformes.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Rapa shearwater (Puffinus myrtae). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/rapa-shearwater

MLA

“Rapa shearwater (Puffinus myrtae).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/rapa-shearwater.

BibTeX
@misc{rapa_shearwater_2026,
  title = {Rapa shearwater (Puffinus myrtae)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/rapa-shearwater},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}