Sooty Shearwater
Puffinus griseus
Also known as: Sooty Shear Water
Habitat
Aquatic
Diet
VertFishScav
Active Time
Diurnal
Size
787 g
About This Species
Look for this dark, long-winged shearwater on offshore pelagic trips, where it travels in large flocks low over the ocean surface with a distinctive stiff-winged, banking flight, often diving to pursue schooling fish. It undertakes one of the longest migrations of any bird, so timing and location depend on the hemisphere and season, with concentrations forming where cold, nutrient-rich currents bring prey close to the surface. Boat-based trips during peak passage offer far better views than land-based seawatching.
Ethical Viewing Guidelines
- This species is listed as Near Threatened, so extra caution is warranted: keep boats at a steady, predictable speed and avoid steering directly into feeding flocks, since sudden approaches can scatter birds off productive foraging areas they may depend on for the entire migratory leg.
- Bycatch in longline and gillnet fisheries is a major driver of this species' decline, so avoiding any activity that concentrates birds near active fishing gear is a meaningful precaution.
- Marine wildlife protections differ substantially between the many countries and international waters this species crosses, so no single approach distance applies everywhere; the cautious default is to let the birds set the distance and never pursue a flock that is moving away.
Seasonal Activity
377,652 sightings · 2000–2026
Citizen science records via GBIF
Classification
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Procellariiformes
- Family
- Procellariidae
Traits
- Diet
- VertFishScav
- Foraging
- Aquatic
- Activity
- Diurnal
- Body mass
- 787 g
Photo
Wikimedia Commons / Wikimedia Commons
CC-BY-SA-4.0
Occurrence data from GBIF.