Description
11-12" [28-30 cm]. A small shearwater, brownish-black above and white below except for dark undertail coverts. Half the size of Greater Shearwater. The rarer Manx Shearwater is blacker, has white undertail coverts, and less fluttery flight.

Voice
Twittering calls and mewing notes heard at night in breeding colonies.

Habitat
Open ocean.

Nesting
1 white egg in a burrow or rock crevice on an island. Nests in colonies.

Range
Breeds on islands in tropical seas around the world. Wanders northward along Gulf Stream from Caribbean and Bermuda as far as Carolinas and, rarely, New England.

Discussion
Very similar to the Manx Shearwater, this tropical species appears regularly on the Gulf Stream during the summer, sometimes in large numbers. There is no evidence that Audubon's Shearwaters undertake the great migrations of many other shearwaters. Like the similar Manx, it does not follow ships in search of food, and so is often difficult to observe at close range.