ComingsBirds.com/Birdgroups S-Z

To the Beauty of Birds

The Sooty Shearwater Puffinus griseus is a medium-large shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. In New Zealand it is also known by its Māori name tītī and as “muttonbird,” like its relatives the Wedge-tailed Shearwater (P. pacificus) and the Australian Short-tailed Shearwater (P. tenuirostris).

Sooty Shearwaters have the typically "shearing" flight of the genus, dipping from side to side on stiff wings with few wing beats, the wingtips almost touching the water. Its flight is powerful and direct, with wings held stiff and straight, giving the impression of a very small albatross. This shearwater is identifiable by its dark plumage which is responsible for its name. In poor viewing conditions it looks all black, but in good light it shows as dark chocolate-brown a silvery strip along the center of the underwing.

Sooty Shearwaters breed on small islands in the south Pacific and south Atlantic Oceans, mainly around New Zealand, the Falkland Islands, Tierra de Fuego and also in the Auckland Islands and Phillip Island off Norfolk Island.
They are spectacular long-distance migrants, following a circular route, travelling north up the western side of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans at the end of the nesting season in March–May, reaching sub Arctic waters in June–July where they cross from west to east, then returning south down the eastern side of the oceans in September–October, reaching to the breeding colonies in November. They do not migrate as a flock, but rather as single individuals, associating only opportunistically. Wikipedia

Photos with s green sea were all photographed on the pelagic trip out of Kaikoura.

Photos with a blue sea were photographed on the Santa Cruz pelagic trip out of Oxnard, CA.

Sooty Shearwater