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A colony of one of the world's rarest seabirds has been found on the Caribbean island of Dominica, according to scientists.

The endangered black-capped petrel was last confirmed as nesting on the island in 1862. But a survey that started in January recorded 968 of the birds over the mountains, where they could potentially be making nests, . Until now, the only known colonies were on the island of Hispaniola - now divided between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Only 1,000 to 2,000 breeding pairs are estimated to live there, and .

"Finding this colony of petrels on Dominica is a real game-changer for black-capped petrel conservation," says biologist Adam Brown from Environmental Protection in the Caribbean, which carried out the survey. Dominica's forests are well-protected, giving conservationists a "huge new opportunity" to try to secure the birds' survival, he says.

The black-and-white bird was once a common sight on the island, but was wiped out in the late 1800s by hunting and the introduction of predators. They are notoriously hard to spot, spending only a few months on land each year, and flying to their underground burrows at night. Biologists used radar and night-vision scopes to count those discovered in Dominica. They now plan to trek into the mountains early next year to look for nests, to confirm that the birds are breeding.

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