Biologists found the species in a burrow among a colony of petrels on Midway Atoll during the Pacific Ocean Biological Survey Program in 1963 and identified it as a Little Shearwater. The specimen sat in a drawer at the Smithsonian for nearly 50 years until Peter Pyle discovered it. After DNA analysis, the bird was given the name Bryan’s Shearwater -  Puffinus bryani - and is named after Edwin Horace Bryan Jr., who was curator of collections at the B.P. Bishop Museum in Honolulu from 1919 until 1968.

The Bryan’s Shearwater is the first new species to be described from the United States and Hawaiian Islands since 1974.

The Bryan’s Shearwater is the smallest shearwater known to exist. It is black and white with a black or blue-gray bill and blue legs.

Given that Bryan’s Shearwaters have remained undiscovered until now, they could be very rare. It is sadly even possible that they went extinct before ever being recognized.