shearwater

Any sea bird of the genus Puffinus. All the species are oceanic, and either dark above and white below or all dark. Shearwaters are members of the same family (Procellariidae), as the diving petrels, order Procellariiformes. They get their name from their habit of skimming low over the sea on still wings.

The sooty shearwater P. griseus is common on both North Atlantic coasts. The muttonbird or whalebird P. tenuirostris breeds in Australia but for the rest of the year moves over the Pacific; it is killed for meat and oil. The shearwater population around the Californian coast declined by 90% between 1987 and 1994. In a 1997 report, US biologists attributed the loss of the majority of four million birds to global warming because increased water temperatures affect the plankton that shearwaters feed on.