WatchList Species Account for Audubon’s Shearwater (Puffinus Iherminieri)

Qualifies for the list as a Declining Yellow List Species

Photo: © Bill Hubick

Widespread in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans, Audubon’s Shearwater is found mostly in tropical waters. It is found in U.S. waters mostly off the southeastern coast but also in the Gulf of Mexico; in North America it seldom comes near land. It breeds in colonies on island cliffs and is active there only at night. The nest is in a crevice, a burrow, or under dense vegetation.

A common breeding resident in the Bahamas where it has probably declined on the larger islands, it is uncommon and local during breeding in the West Indies, where it is vulnerable to disturbance and the human population continues to grow. It formerly bred on Bermuda but has been extirpated there. Other breeding islands are in the Indian Ocean, the western and southern Pacific, and the Galapagos, where it numbers in the thousands.