Puffinus mauretanicus
Silhouette: Juan Carlos Jerí · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
The Balearic shearwater (Puffinus mauretanicus) is a medium-sized shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. Puffinus is a Neo-Latin loanword based on the English "puffin" and its variants, that referred to the cured carcass of the fat nestling of the Manx shearwater, a former delicacy. The specific mauretanicus refers to Mauretania, an old name for an area of North Africa roughly corresponding to Morocco and Algeria. The Balearic Shearwater is listed critically endangered by the IUCN and is one of Europe's most endangered seabirds.
The Balearic shearwater was formally described in 1921 by the English ornithologist Percy Lowe. He treated it as a subspecies of the Manx shearwater and coined the trinomial name Puffinus puffinus mauretanicus. The Balearic shearwater was long regarded a subspecies of the Manx shearwater. Following an initial split, it was held to be a subspecies of the "Mediterranean shearwater" for nearly ten more years, until it was resolved to be a distinct species, separate from the yelkouan shearwater.
A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2021 found very little genetic difference between the Balearic shearwater and the yelkouan shearwater... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
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More parks will be added in future updates.
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Balearic Shearwater sighting in Porto on a given day, based on 32 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 128th most-seen of the 175 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, and over a week to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Balearic Shearwater in Porto on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Balearic 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.
Among the best
Of the 2 cities where we can rate Balearic Shearwater sightings, Porto ranks 2nd at under 5%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Barcelona (Spain, under 5%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Balearic Shearwater is recorded against all the birds logged in Porto (32 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.
