Bird guideBuller's Shearwater

It neither dives out of flight very often, nor in a plunge off the water's surface.

⚠️Not listed
🍃Indigenous: Ashy-Backed Shearwater, Ashy-Backed Petrel, Grey-Backed Shearwater, New Zealand Shearwater

At a glance

FamilyShearwaters and Petrels
SizeLarge
RarityUncommon
HabitatPelagic; mostly offshore and over open ocean, occasionally seen from coastal headlands during passage.
Best timeMost reliable in New South Wales from January.

Sounds

Sound sample
0:000:00
Recorded by Sophie Bennett

Range map

Range map

171visible hotspots
899visible records
0states
Low confidenceMediumHigh confidence

Aggregated occurance data is sourced from 14 different actively-updating datasets including eBird Australia, iNaturalist Australia, BirdLife Australia, and multiple state-based bird surveys through Atlas of Living Australia.

Species notes

Overview

Food is caught mainly at a head's length below the surface at most, the bird either picking it up with the bill only, often out of flight, or briefly inserting the entire head, usually while swimming.

Behavior

Fledged juveniles already have the adult's colouration; the nestlings are covered in grey down feathers. This species is pelagic like the other Ardenna shearwaters; it is a transequatorial migrant ranging across most of the Pacific Ocean outside the breeding season.

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