Great Shearwater (Ardenna gravis)
About the Great Shearwater
The great shearwater (Ardenna gravis) is a large shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. It breeds colonially on rocky islands in the South Atlantic. Outside the breeding season it ranges widely in the Atlantic. The great shearwater was formally described in 1818 by the Irish naturalist Bernard O'Reilly and given the binomial name Procellaria gravis. The great shearwater is now placed in the genus Ardenna that was introduced in 1853 by Ludwig Reichenbach. The genus name Ardenna was used to refer to a seabird by Italian naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi in 1603. The specific epithet gravis is Latin meaning "heavy" or "weighty". The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.
No audio on this page yet
We only publish recordings we may use commercially, because this site is supported by ads. xeno-canto lists 24 recordings for this species: 21 CC BY-NC-SA. None of them permits commercial use, so there is no player here — the page is kept as a profile so the bird is not missing from the guide.
As soon as someone uploads a freely licensed recording, we mirror it and the player appears here.
Listed as recorded in France, South Africa, United States in the xeno-canto catalogue.
Other birds you can hear here
- Barn SwallowHirundo rusticarecording
- Black-crowned Night HeronNycticorax nycticoraxrecording
- Alpine SwiftTachymarptis melbarecording
- American Golden PloverPluvialis dominicarecording
- American Yellow WarblerSetophaga aestivarecording
- Arctic TernSterna paradisaearecording
These are the birds recorded alongside it, not close relatives — the site holds no other member of its genus or family yet.