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MarineCavity nestLarge · 497 g
ID tip
The yelkouan shearwaters is 30–35 cm (12–14 in) in length and has a wingspan of 70–84 cm (28–33 in). It has the typically "shearing" flight of the genus, dipping from side to side on stiff wings with few wingbeats, the wingtips almost touching the water. This bird looks like a flying cross, with its wing held at right angles to the body, and it changes from very dark brown to white as the dark upperparts and paler undersides are alternately exposed as it travels low over the sea.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
When to see the Mediterranean Shearwater
One bar for each month, and every month is filled: this bird is recorded here in all twelve. The wide bar is May, the month with the most records.
Where to see the Mediterranean Shearwater
The map shades 23 countries with regular records, and 3 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 Morocco, United Kingdom, Sweden.
About the Mediterranean Shearwater
The yelkouan shearwater, Levantine shearwater or Mediterranean shearwater is a medium-sized shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. It was formerly treated as a subspecies of the Manx shearwater.
Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Easily confused with
Galapagos ShearwaterPuffinus subalarisThe Galápagos shearwater has dark brown upperparts, undertail and underwing flight feathers, the rest of the underparts plumage being white.
Fluttering ShearwaterPuffinus gaviaThis is a medium to small-sized shearwater with a dark-brown-and-white body.
Hutton's ShearwaterPuffinus huttoniThe bird's name commemorates Frederick Hutton, a former curator of the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Side by side: Black-vented Shearwater vs Mediterranean Shearwater · Mediterranean Shearwater vs Sargasso Shearwater · Fluttering Shearwater vs Mediterranean Shearwater · Galapagos Shearwater vs Mediterranean Shearwater · Hutton's Shearwater vs Mediterranean Shearwater
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