Puffinus griseus
Silhouette: Juan Carlos Jerí · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~60% in a week ~90%
The sooty shearwater (Ardenna grisea) is a medium-large shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. In New Zealand, it is also known by its Māori name tītī, and is harvested by Māori people for muttonbird, like its relatives the wedge-tailed shearwater (A. pacificus) and the Australian short-tailed shearwater (A. tenuirostris).
The sooty shearwater was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin under the binomial name Procellaria grisea. The shearwater had been briefly described in 1777 by James Cook in the account of his second voyage to the Pacific, but without a valid scientific name; and also in 1785 the English ornithologist John Latham had described a museum specimen, again without giving it a scientific name. The sooty shearwater is now placed in the genus Ardenna, that was described in 1853 by Ludwig Reichenbach. The genus name Ardenna was used to refer to a seabird by Italian naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi in 1603, and the specific epithet grisea is medieval Latin for "grey". The species is considered to be monotypic; no subspecies are recognised.
It appears to be particularly closely related to the great shearwater (A. gravis... Wikipedia →
Recording0:41
New Zealand · 2021
© hannahm94 · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
Recording1:48
New Zealand · 2015
© Johnny Rommens · Observation.org, Nature data from around the World · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Recording2:34
New Zealand · 2012
© Olivier SWIFT · Observation.org, Nature data from around the World · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenai Fjords National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Rakiura National Park | 🇳🇿 New Zealand | |
| 3 | Machalilla National Park | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 4 | Fiordland National Park | 🇳🇿 New Zealand | |
| 5 | Península Valdés | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 6 | Great Bear Rainforest | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 7 | Cabo Pulmo National Park | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 8 | Table Mountain National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 9 | Olympic National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | Channel Islands National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 11 | Cabo Blanco Absolute Nature Reserve | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 12 | Tierra del Fuego National Park | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 13 | De Hoop Nature Reserve | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 14 | Galápagos Islands | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 15 | Pacific Rim National Park Reserve | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 16 | Wadden Sea National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 17 | Las Baulas Marine National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 18 | Acadia National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 19 | Bastimentos Island National Marine Park | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 20 | Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 21 | La Amistad International Park (Panama) | 🇵🇦 Panama |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dakar | 🇸🇳 Senegal | |
| 2 | Lima | 🇵🇪 Peru | |
| 3 | Tel Aviv | 🇮🇱 Israel | |
| 4 | San Diego | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | San Francisco | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Sydney | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 7 | Los Angeles | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Seattle | 🇺🇸 United States |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Sooty Shearwater sighting in Dakar on a given day, based on 65 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 44th most-seen of the 152 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 60%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
September and November
In those months about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Sooty Shearwater in Dakar on a given day, against about 10% in January to July, the lowest months. Those are among Dakar's wettest months, with about 90 mm of rain a month against almost none in May.
Between noon and 3 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Sooty Shearwater sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Yes
Of the 8 cities where we can rate Sooty Shearwater sightings, Dakar has the highest daily chance: about 30%. Next come Lima (Peru, under 5%) and Tel Aviv (Israel, under 5%).
Same genus: Puffinus
The closest relatives of the Sooty Shearwater that you can see in Dakar (genus Puffinus, Small Shearwaters) are Manx Shearwater (about 20%) and Great Shearwater (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Sooty Shearwater is recorded against all the birds logged in Dakar (65 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.
