Puffinus newelli
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
Newell's shearwater or Hawaiian shearwater (ʻaʻo), (Puffinus newelli) is a seabird in the family Procellariidae. It belongs to a confusing group of shearwaters which are difficult to identify and whose classification is controversial. It was formerly treated as a subspecies of the Manx shearwater (Puffinus puffinus) and is now often placed in Townsend's shearwater (Puffinus auricularis).
This shearwater is the only seabird endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. Its Hawaiian name "ʻaʻo" comes from the sound of its call. Native Hawaiians regarded the ʻaʻo's haunting song as an omen of death. It is a fairly small shearwater, 33 centimetres (13 in) in length. The wing is 223–249 millimetres (8.8–9.8 in) long and the tail is 78.9–88.8 millimetres (3.11–3.50 in). The bird weighs 0.340–0.425 kilograms (0.75–0.94 lb). The upperparts are black with a brown tinge while the underparts are white. The dark colouration on the face extends below the eye and is sharply separated from the white throat. There is a white patch on the flanks, extending onto the sides of the rump. The underwings are mainly white with a dark border. The undertail-coverts have a black and white pattern and appear...
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge | 🇺🇸 United States |
More parks will be added in future updates.
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Newell's Shearwater sighting in Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge on a given day, based on 14 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 36th most-seen of the 44 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.
October
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Newell's Shearwater in Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge on a given day, against under 5% in November to September, the lowest months.
Between noon and 3 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Newell's Shearwater sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge, in our data
Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Newell's Shearwater sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Newell's Shearwater is recorded against all the birds logged in Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge (14 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
