• 

  Profile

• 

  In flight

Seabirds

Sooty Shearwater

Ardenna grisea

• uncommon
• 55 km/h
• Near Threatened

Migrates 40,000 miles per year, the longest animal migration. Your message is a detour.

Population

~8.8 million mature individuals (roughly 19-24 million total individuals; declining)

Habitat

Open ocean (pelagic) outside breeding season; nests colonially in burrows under tussock grass and low scrub on offshore islands

Fun fact

Sooty Shearwaters make one of the longest annual migrations of any bird, tracked flying roughly 64,000-74,000 km (about 40,000+ miles) in a giant figure-eight loop across the Pacific between New Zealand/Chile breeding grounds and Alaska/California/Japan feeding waters.

Range

Breeds on islands off New Zealand, southeastern Australia, and Chile (largest colony, up to 4 million birds, on Isla Guafo), plus the Falkland Islands/Tierra del Fuego region; during the non-breeding season undertakes a trans-equatorial figure-eight migration across the Pacific and Atlantic, reaching Alaska, California, and Japan in the Northern Hemisphere

Diet

Fish and squid, caught by pursuit-diving using its wings for underwater propulsion, sometimes to depths of 60-68 m; also scavenges behind fishing boats and near whales

Size

0.45 m

Wingspan

1 m

Lifespan

30 years