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Puffinus tenuirostris

(slender-billed shearwater)

Interesting Facts

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Common Names

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Click on the language to view common names.

Common Names in Dutch:

Dunbekpijlstormvogel

Common Names in English:

muttonbird, Short-tailed Shearwater, slender-billed shearwater, whalebird

Common Names in French:

Puffin , Puffin à bec grêle

Common Names in German:

Kurzschwanz-Sturmtaucher

Common Names in Japanese:

ハシボソミズナギドリ

Common Names in Spanish:

Pardela cola corta

Description

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Habitat

Typically found in water with a depth of 0 to -5,084 meters (0 to -16,680 feet).[1]

Ecology: Breeding occurs mainly on coastal islands, typically in areas of grassland or other vegetation, but sometimes cliffs or bare ground1. It conducts a bimodal feeding strategy whilst breeding, alternating short foraging trips to local waters with long foraging trips (up to 17 days) to the Polar Frontal Zone. Short trips allow greater chick provisioning at the sacrifice of body condition, which is then recovered in richer sub-Antarctic waters. Diet includes fish (particularly mycotphids), crustaceans and squid2. Feeding occurs in flocks of up to 20,000 birds, and it has been seen associated with cetaceans . It is a trans-equatorial migrant, wintering off Aleutian Islands, some moving north of Bering Strait1.

[2].

List of Habitats :

Biology

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Reproduction

Taxonomy

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Synonyms

Puffinus tenuirostris (Temminck, 1835)

Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name .

Last scrutiny: 13-Jun-2007

Similar Species

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Extremely similar and much more common Sooty Shearwater has a less rounded head with a more gradual slope to the forehead. Sometimes Sooty Shearwaters have paler wing linings and appear slightly larger. Flesh-footed Shearwater has a pale bill and feet. Dark Norther Fulmars are much stockier with yellow bills. Immature gulls are superficially similar but can be separated at great distances by their different flight styles. Shearwaters fly closer to the surface of the water, often disappearing behind swells, alternating flaps with long glides on downcurved wings.

Members of the genus Puffinus

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 33 species and subspecies in this genus:

P. assimilis (Allied Shearwater) · P. assimilis assimilis (Little Shearwater) · P. atrodorsalis (Mascarene Shearwater) · P. auricularis ('a'o) · P. auricularis auricularis (Newell's Townsend's Shearwater) · P. auricularis newelli (Manx) · P. bannermani (Bannerman's Shearwater) · P. bulleri (Grey-Backed Shearwater) · P. carneipes (Flesh-Footed Shearwater) · P. creatopus (Pink-Footed Shearwater) · (Fluttering Shearwater) · P. gavia gavia (Fluttering Shearwater) · P. gravis (Common Atlantic Shearwater) · P. griseus (Dark-Bodied Shearwater) · P. heinrothi (Heinroth's Shearwater) · P. huttoni (Hutton's Shearwater) · P. iherminieri (Audubon's Shearwater) · P. lherminieri (Bannerman's Shearwater) · P. lherminieri lherminieri (Mascarene Shearwater) · P. lherminieri persicus (Audubon's Shearwater) · P. lherminieri subalaris (Audubon's Shearwater) · P. mauretanicus (Balearic Shearwater) · P. nativitatis (Christmas Island Shearwater) · P. newelli (Newell's Shearwater) · P. opisthomelas (Black-Vented Shearwater) · P. pacificus (Wedge-Tailed Shearwater) · P. persicus (Audubon's Shearwater) · P. puffinus (Black-Vented Shearwater) · P. puffinus opisthomelas (Manx Shearwater) · P. puffinus puffinus (Manx Shearwater) · P. puffinus yelkouan (Manx Shearwater) · P. tenuirostris (Slender-Billed Shearwater) · P. yelkouan (Mediterranean Shearwater)

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal March 10, 2008:

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Mean = -3,354.020 meters (-11,004.003 feet), Standard Deviation = 1,366.610 based on 8,324 observations. Ocean depth information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]
  2. BirdLife International 2009. Puffinus tenuirostris. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 04 February 2012. [back]
Last Revised: 7/14/2012