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MarineCavity nestLarge · 356 g
ID tip
The Christmas shearwater is a slender-bodied shearwater, about 36 cm long, with a wingspan of around 75 cm, and weighs around 350 g. It has dark plumage all over, generally blackish-grey with a rusty-brown tinge, slightly paler on the underside of the bird, and with some small edging of white under the chin and pale fringes to the upperwing coverts. It has brown-grey feet and a dark bill and eyes. Both sexes are alike, as are the young after fledging. Nestlings are covered in dark grey down feathers. The species closely resembles the sooty (Puffinus griseus) and short-tailed shearwaters (P.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
When to see the Christmas Shearwater
One bar for each month. Filled bars are the 11 months with records; pale bars are months with none. The wide bar is March, the month with the most records.
Where to see the Christmas Shearwater
The map shades 8 countries with regular records, and 6 more in a lighter tone where the bird turns up only as a stray. Everything unshaded has no records. Countries are listed below the map.
Recorded as a rare visitor in United States, Mexico, Colombia, Taiwan, Fiji, New Zealand.
About the Christmas Shearwater
The Christmas shearwater or ʻaoʻū is a medium-sized shearwater of the tropical Central Pacific. It is a poorly known species due to its remote nesting habits, and it has not been extensively studied at sea either.
Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Easily confused with
Newell's ShearwaterPuffinus newelliIt is a fairly small shearwater, 33 centimetres (13 in) in length.
Boyd's ShearwaterPuffinus boydiBoyd's shearwater, also known as the Cape Verde little shearwater, is a small shearwater which breeds in the Cape Verde archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean some 570 km off the coast of West Africa.
Bannerman's ShearwaterPuffinus bannermaniBannerman's shearwater is a seabird in the family Procellariidae formerly considered conspecific with Audubon's shearwater.
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