Guadelupe Storm-Petrel (Oceanodroma macrodactyla)  

The Guadelupe Storm-Petrel, a 23 cm long sea bird which was locally named as Paino or Petrel de Guadalupe, bred exclusively in the native pine resp. cypress forests of the about 280 km² large island of Guadalupe about 240 km offshore the Baja California peninsula. Almost the entire vegetation of this island was destroyed by feral goats that had been introduced in the 19th century, hence many of the native birds lost their habitat.  

Storm-Petrels are very good flyers, which find their food by flying along the surface of the sea, picking up everything edible.  

For breeding, however, they need to come to land, where they breed in self-dug burrows. As soon as they land on the forest floor and waddle towards their breeding burrow, they are extremely vulnerable to predation by introduced feral cats – and indeed feral cats are the main reason for the extinction of the Guadelupe Storm-Petrel (and at least four additional endemic bird forms).  

The last Guadalupe Storm-Petrel was seen in the year 1912.  

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References:  

[1] Dieter Luther: Die ausgestorbenen Vögel der Welt. Westarp Wissenschaften 1986 
[2] Errol Fuller: Extinct Birds. Penguin Books (England) 1987  

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edited: 17.10.2020