Audubon's shearwater (Puffinus lherminieri ) is a common tropical seabird in the petrel family. Sometimes known as the dusky-backed shearwater, the specific epithet honours the French naturalist Félix Louis L'Herminier.
Certain populations are known variously as Baillon's shearwater, tropical shearwater, Bannerman's shearwater, Mascarene shearwater and Persian shearwater; some of these are considered distinct species by various authors. If they are all placed in P. lherminieri, the North Atlantic little shearwater (otherwise often separated as P. baroli ) is generally included here too. Thus, these small shearwaters form a cryptic species complex.
A piscivore is a carnivorous animal that eats primarily fish. Piscivorous is equivalent to the Greek-derived word ichthyophagous. Fish were the die...
A planktivore is an aquatic organism that feeds on planktonic food, including zooplankton and phytoplankton. Phytoplankton are usually photosynthet...
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TerrestrialTerrestrial animals are animals that live predominantly or entirely on land (e.g., cats, ants, snails), as compared with aquatic animals, which liv...
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CongregatoryCongregatory animals tend to gather in large numbers in specific areas as breeding colonies, for feeding, or for resting.
Oviparous animals are female animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive...
Precocial species are those in which the young are relatively mature and mobile from the moment of birth or hatching. Precocial species are normall...
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Soaring birds can maintain flight without wing flapping, using rising air currents. Many gliding birds are able to "lock" their extended wings by m...
Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, b...
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SocialFlocking birds are those that tend to gather to forage or travel collectively. Avian flocks are typically associated with migration. Flocking also ...
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MigratingAnimal migration is the relatively long-distance movement of individual animals, usually on a seasonal basis. It is the most common form of migrati...
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starts withAudubon's shearwaters are on average 30 cm (12 in) in length—about half the size of the greater shearwater (Puffinus gravis )—and weigh 170 g. There is some variation between populations, and the normal size and weight range is 30–33 cm (12–13 in) and 150–230 g (5.3–8.1 oz). The wingspan is 64 to 72 centimetres (25 to 28 in), the tail is around 8.5 centimetres (3.3 in) long, the exposed culmen measures 3 centimetres (1.2 in) or slightly less, and the tarsus is around 4 centimetres (1.6 in) in length. In general appearance, it is a small shearwater, black above and white below and hard to distinguish from its relatives at first glance.
The upperparts, rectrices and undertail coverts are blackish-brown, as are at least the distal undersides of the remiges, but sometimes the entire feathers. The rest of the underparts are white, as is the head below eye level. The iris is dark, the feet are dull pink with a black wash and black toenails, and the bill is grey, darker towards the tip, and with a pinkish hue.
Males and females look alike. Immature birds do not have a distinct plumage, while the nestlings are covered with down feathers, grey above and whitish on the belly.
It can be confused with the Manx shearwater (P. puffinus ), which has white undertail coverts and in direct comparison a longer bill. Other similar-looking species are usually completely allopatric, though the largely subantarctic little shearwater (P. assimilis ) may occasionally range into waters where P. lherminieri is normally found. It has more white on the face and underwing, a smaller bill and greyish-blue feet.
Its twittering calls and mewing are often only heard at night in the breeding colonies.
If not split into several species, Audubon's shearwater ranges across the Indian Ocean north to the Arabian Sea, throughout the north-west and central Pacific, in the Caribbean, and parts of the eastern Atlantic. It is a species of tropical waters; only some Atlantic populations and Bannerman's shearwater of the Ogasawara Islands occur farther north. Unlike the larger shearwaters, adult Audubon's shearwaters are not thought to wander much or undertake great migrations, although their young birds do so before breeding, and western Indian Ocean birds may gather in large numbers at the upwelling zone in the Arabian Sea.
It is adaptable as regards its preferred marine habitat; it can be found in pelagic, offshore and inshore waters. It feeds in a variety of methods, mainly diving out of flight, plunging underwater from a swimming position, and picking up food less than a bill's length underwater while "pattering" as if it were walking across the waves. It eats small fish, squid and planktonic crustaceans. Unlike other shearwaters, it is not commonly a ship-follower, though it may attend small fishing boats; it is also sometimes met with as part of a mixed-species feeding flock.
The species is colonial, nesting in small burrows and crevices in rocks and on earthy slopes on atolls and rocky islets. The breeding season varies according to location and subspecies, but how precisely is not very well-studied. Both parents share the responsibility of incubating the single white egg (measurements of 52.5 by 36.2 mm and a weight of 37 g have been recorded for one specimen of average size), each incubating for periods of 2 to 10 days until the egg hatches after 49–51 days of incubation. The nestlings are brooded for half a week to one week, after which time the parents will leave it mostly alone in the burrow and spend most of their time foraging and feeding their voracious offspring, which become very fat. Time from hatching to fledging is 62–75 days. Audubon's shearwaters take about 8 years to reach breeding age. As typical for Procellariiformes they are long-lived for their size, one bird ringed as an adult was still alive 11 years later; it must have been more than 15 years old at that time.
While some small populations are threatened, the species as a whole (in the present sense, i.e. unsplit) is not considered to be globally threatened.
Social animals are those animals that interact highly with other animals, usually of their own species (conspecifics), to the point of having a rec...