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Manx Shearwater

Manx Shearwater

Puffinus puffinus

Identify the Manx Shearwater by sound or photo and log your sightings with Birdpass.

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The Manx Shearwater is a medium-sized, black-and-white tube-nosed seabird that skims low over the waves on stiff, “shearing” wings. It breeds in burrows on North Atlantic islands, visiting its colonies only at night, and winters in the South Atlantic off South America. It is long-lived and has remarkable navigation skills.

Did you know?

  • The name “puffin” originally referred to salted shearwater chicks.
  • Shearwaters released hundreds of kilometres away, even inland, can fly straight home.

Voice

Flight call

About the species

Identification

A medium-sized shearwater: length about 30–38 cm, wingspan 76–89 cm. The upperparts are blackish and the underparts very white, creating a sharp contrast as it banks and tilts in gliding flight. In flight it looks cross-shaped. The sexes look alike.

Family

Procellariidae

Size

Large (crow)

Colours

black, white

About the habitat

The open North Atlantic; breeds in burrows on offshore islands free of ground predators; winters off Brazil and Argentina.

Diet

Mainly small fish such as herring, sprats and sand eels, as well as squid and crustaceans, caught at or near the surface or in shallow dives.

Behaviour

Silent at sea, it flies with stiff wings, tilting from side to side so that it shows black and white alternately. At colonies it arrives only after dark, when the burrows fill with eerie, crooning and cackling calls. Parents may fly over a thousand kilometres to feed while raising their single chick. Released far away, it can navigate straight back to its burrow.

Sources

Photo: Martin Reith, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Manx Shearwater.JPG

Sound: Hugo Leclerc, XC670087, CC BY 4.0 https://xeno-canto.org/670087

Text: Wikipedia (English), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manx_shearwater

See also