NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
White-necked Petrel
Pterodroma cervicalis (Salvin, 1891)
Source-backed taxonomic record
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Open encyclopedia reference
The white-necked petrel (Pterodroma cervicalis), also known as the white-naped petrel, is a species of seabird in the family Procellariidae. During the non-breeding season it occurs throughout a large part of the Pacific, but it is only known to breed on Macauley Island in New Zealand's Kermadec Islands and the Australian territory of Norfolk Island and Phillip Island. It formerly bred on Raoul Island, but has now been extirpated from this locality due to predation by rats and cats. Reports of breeding on Merelava, Vanuatu, are more likely to be the very similar Vanuatu petrel, P. occulta, which some consider to be a subspecies of the white-necked petrel. The IUCN rating as vulnerable is for the "combined" species.
Wikipedia contributors, White-necked petrel; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T07:39:28.917939+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Pterodroma cervicalis (Salvin, 1891)
- Name authority
- (Salvin, 1891)
- Common name
- White-necked Petrel
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Procellariiformes
- Family
- Procellariidae
- Genus
- Pterodroma
- Extinction status
- Recorded extant
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classAves
- orderProcellariiformes
- familyProcellariidae Leach, 1820
- genusPterodroma Bonaparte, 1856
- speciesPterodroma cervicalis (Salvin, 1891)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Pterodroma. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Chatham Islands PetrelPterodroma axillaris (Salvin, 1893) | ProcellariidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Barau's PetrelPterodroma baraui (Jouanin, 1964) | ProcellariidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Bermuda PetrelPterodroma cahow (Nichols & Mowbray, 1916) | ProcellariidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Cook's PetrelPterodroma cookii (G. R. Gray, 1843) | ProcellariidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Masatierra PetrelPterodroma defilippiana (Giglioli & Salvadori, 1869) | ProcellariidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Desertas PetrelPterodroma deserta Mathews, 1934 | ProcellariidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Juan Fernandez PetrelPterodroma externa (Salvin, 1875) | ProcellariidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Herald PetrelPterodroma heraldica (Salvin, 1888) | ProcellariidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Mottled PetrelPterodroma inexpectata (J. R. Forster, 1844) | ProcellariidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Gould's PetrelPterodroma leucoptera (Gould, 1844) | ProcellariidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Kermadec PetrelPterodroma neglecta (Schlegel, 1863) | ProcellariidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Black-winged PetrelPterodroma nigripennis (Rothschild, 1893) | ProcellariidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Pterodroma externa cervicalis (Salvin, 1891) (Salvin, 1891) | synonym |
| Oestrelata cervicalis Salvin, 1891 Salvin, 1891 | synonym |
| Pterodroma cervicalis cervicalis (Salvin, 1891) (Salvin, 1891) | synonym |
Documented distribution
Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=554394 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:4PWKC. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.