Macaronesian Shearwater (Puffinus baroli)

25 August 2007

Created by Blair Nikula

The shearwater illustrated below was seen and photographed approximately 65 miles SSE of Nantucket, MA, over shelf waters (roughly 100 foot depth) during a Brookline Bird Club pelagic trip on 25 August 2007.  It appears to match in every feature the North Atlantic form of Little Shearwater, now considered by many to be a distinct species, the Macaronesian Shearwater.

These images were taken at a considerable distance and have been heavily cropped, but despite their inferior quality clearly show the extensively white face with eye completely surrounded by white; the rounded head; small bill; white undertail coverts; extensively white underwing with relatively narrow dark border; blackish dorsal coloration; pale grayish panel on the upper surface of the wing; white "tabs" wrapping well around up onto the top sides of the rump; and white tips on the secondary coverts forming two white bars on the inner wing.