Calonectris diomedea
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5%
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 Table Mountain National Park on a given day, based on 11 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 213th most-seen of the 223 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Scopoli's Shearwater in Table Mountain National Park on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
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.
Among the best
Of the 3 parks where we can rate Scopoli's Shearwater sightings, Table Mountain National Park ranks 3rd at under 5%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Celestún Biosphere Reserve (Mexico, under 5%) and Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge (United States, under 5%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Scopoli's Shearwater is recorded against all the birds logged in Table Mountain National Park (11 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.
