The Westland petrel (Procellaria westlandica), (Māori: tāiko), also known as the Westland black petrel, is a moderately large seabird in the petrel family Procellariidae, that is endemic to New Zealand. Described by Robert Falla in 1946, it is a stocky bird weighing approximately , and is one of the largest of the burrowing petrels. It is a dark blackish-brown colour with black legs and feet. It has a pale yellow with a dark tip. This species spends most of its life at sea but returns to land to breed. When at sea, it ranges across areas of the Pacific and Tasman seas around the subtropical convergence and migrates east to South American waters during the non-breeding season. They are nocturnal and feed on fish, squid and crustaceans. This species is also known to be an opportunistic feeder, scavenging fish waste discarded by hoki fishers. The only known breeding colonies of the Westland petrel are in New Zealand, in a small area of forest-covered coastal foothills between Barrytown and Punakaiki on the South Island's West Coast. The birds nest in burrows excavated into hillsides and slopes, and exhibit natal philopatry, that is they return to their natal colony to breed. The loss of a breeding colony can therefore have severe consequences for the population. The total area of all breeding colonies combined is only about . In 2014, the breeding colony areas suffered extensive damage from landslips and tree fall during the tail-end of Cyclone Ita. Other significant potential threats to the breeding colonies are predation by feral pigs and vagrant dogs from nearby settlements. As of 2021, the International Union for Conservation of Nature classified this species as endangered, and the New Zealand Department of Conservation classified this species as "At Risk: Naturally Uncommon" under the New Zealand Threat Classification System. Taxonomy The Westland petrel was first described by New Zealand ornithologist Robert Falla in 1946 under the name Procellana parkinsoni westlandica. The Westland petrel was identified in 1945 after the students of Barrytown School wrote to Falla, as he was then the Director of the Canterbury Museum. They had heard in a radio broadcast about the sooty shearwater/muttonbird, but noticed that the behaviour of the 'mutton birds' in their area was quite different. They also sent Falla a dead bird, and within a few weeks he visited the West Coast. Initially he considered that the West Coast birds were