Calonectris diomedea
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
Scopoli's shearwater (Calonectris diomedea) is a seabird in the petrel family Procellariidae. It breeds on rocky islands and on steep coasts in the Mediterranean but outside the breeding season it forages in the Atlantic. It is brownish grey above with darker wings and mostly white below. The bill is pale yellow with a dark patch near the tip. The sexes are alike. It was formerly considered to be conspecific with Cory's shearwater.
Scopoli's shearwater was formally described in 1769 by the Italian naturalist Giovanni Antonio Scopoli. He placed it with the other petrels in the genus Procellaria and coined the binomial name Procellaria diomedea. Scopoli did not mention a type locality but this was designated in 1946 by the British Ornithologists' Union as the Tremiti Islands in the Adriatic. Scopoli's shearwater is now placed in the genus Calonectris that was introduced in 1915 by the ornithologists Gregory Mathews and Tom Iredale. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek kalos meaning "good" or "noble" with the genus name Nectris that was used for shearwaters by the German naturalist Heinrich Kuhl in 1820. The name Nectris comes from the Ancient Greek nēktris meaning... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Celestún Biosphere Reserve | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 2 | Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Table Mountain National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Scopoli's Shearwater sighting in Athens on a given day, based on 61 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 78th most-seen of the 145 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May and July
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Scopoli's Shearwater in Athens on a given day, against under 5% in June and August–April, the lowest months. Those are among Athens's driest months, with about 15 mm of rain a month against 85 mm in December.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Scopoli's Shearwater sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Yes
Of the 5 cities where we can rate Scopoli's Shearwater sightings, Athens has the highest daily chance: under 5%. Next come Tel Aviv (Israel, under 5%) and Barcelona (Spain, under 5%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Scopoli's Shearwater is recorded against all the birds logged in Athens (61 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
