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3

Sooty Shearwater (Ardenna grisea) Alternate name(s): "New Zealand Muttonbird", "Ghost Bird", "King Muttonbird", "Sombre Shearwater" Size: 40-51 cm; wing span 0.95-1.1 m

Australia: Family Group 3 Family Group 3 table Southern Fulmar Antarctic Petrel Cape Petrel Mottled Petrel Black-winged Petrel Providence Petrel Grey-faced Petrel Kermadec Petrel Soft-plumaged Petrel Tahiti Petrel Buller's Shearwater Wedge-tailed Shearwater Flesh-footed Shearwater Sooty Shearwater Short-tailed Shearwater Fluttering Shearwater Hutton's Shearwater Little Shearwater Antarctic Prion Slender-billed Prion Fairy Prion Southern Giant-Petrel Northern Giant-Petrel Light-mantled Albatross Wandering Albatross Southern Royal Albatross Northern Royal Albatross Black-browed Albatross Campbell Albatross Buller's Albatross Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross Shy Albatross Common Diving-Petrel Wilson's Storm-Petrel New Zealand Storm-Petrel White-faced Storm-Petrel Thumbnails page Family group table Index of bird names Habitat pages Key plants Birds home page

Similar species

Description     Classification     Distribution     Sightings     Photos     Breeding     Nest     Eggs     Behaviour     Food     Call/s

Physical description Click here for a physical description Sooty Shearwaters are medium-sized seabirds with an overall dark-brown plumage. The only exception from this homogeneous colour is that they have grey or greyish-brown underwing coverts. The legs and feet are grey. The feet reach slightly beyond the end of the tail. Their main characteristic is that in flight they can often be seen with wingtips bowed upwards.

Taxonomy, classification See Sooty Shearwater at Wikipedia .

Range, habitat, finding this species Click here for information on habitat and range The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org . The global distribution of the Sooty Shearwater is available HERE . Sooty Shearwaters are a global, long-distance migratory pelagic species. They are at home anywhere on the open seas on both the southern and the northern hemisphere, EXCEPT the central and northern Indian Ocean and all enclosed waters, such as the Mediterranean, the Baltic Sea and waters between the major groups of islands in South-east Asia (Indonesia, the Philippines, New Guinea). Their breeding grounds are on the southern hemisphere, on islands of the southern Pacific Ocean and the southern Atlantic Ocean. In Australia, Sooty Shearwaters are present around the South coast, primarily from about Esperance, WA, in the West to the NSW/QLD border in the East, but occasionally from the south-western tip of the continent to about Fraser Island in the East. Sooty Shearwaters are found mostly on the open seas, but also in coastal waters and, during their breeding season, on offshore islands.

Sightings Click here for sighting information We have not seen Sooty Shearwaters in Australian waters yet. P. Brown spotted Sooty Shearwaters off a cruise ship on the western Pacific Ocean between Bora Bora and Hawaii in April 2019. All photographic information presented on this page has kindly been contributed by P. Brown.

Photos

ADULT

Sex unknown

Near-lateral view onto the upperparts of a Sooty Shearwater in flight (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[April 2019]

Lateral view of a Sooty Shearwater in low flight; note the slender bill and the dark head and trailing edge of the wing (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[April 2019]

Lateral/ventral view of a Sooty Shearwater in flight; note the bowed wing tips, which are typical for the species (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[April 2019]

Lateral/ventral view onto the underparts of a Sooty Shearwater in flight (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[April 2019]

Near-dorsal view onto the upperparts of a Sooty Shearwater in flight (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[April 2019]

Near-dorsal view onto the upperparts of a Sooty Shearwater in flight (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[April 2019]

Near-dorsal/ventral view of a Sooty Shearwater in flight (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[April 2019]

Dorsal view of a Sooty Shearwater in flight (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[April 2019]

Two Sooty Shearwaters in low flight almost touching the water with their wing tips (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[April 2019]

Dorsal view of two Sooty Shearwaters in low flight almost touching the water with their wing tips (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[April 2019]

Lateral comparison of a Sooty Shearwater with a Mottled Petrel in flight (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[April 2019]

Additional information

More photos of Sooty Shearwaters are available from Europe.

These pages are largely based on our own observations and those of our contributors. The structure of these bird pages is explained HERE. For more salient facts on any bird species please refer to a field guide.

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Disclaimer: Comments are always welcome. We give no guarantee that the information presented on these pages is always correct or up-to-date. External links are marked as such and we take no responsibility for the contents of external pages. All images on this site are protected by copyright & used by permission of the respective owners. If you wish to reproduce them or any of the material presented on this web site, please contact us: We hereby acknowledge the original custodians of the land which is described on these pages, including the Gomeroi/Gamilaraay people of the North-west Slopes and Plains of NSW, and the traditional owners of other lands and nations within this country. We acknowledge elders past, present and emerging. Sovereignty was never ceded.          Last updated: Mon, 20 April 2020, 22:27 +00:00