Little Shearwater (Puffinus assimilis)
About the Little Shearwater
The little shearwater (Puffinus assimilis) is a small shearwater in the petrel family Procellariidae. Despite the generic name, it is unrelated to the puffins, which are auks, the only similarity being that they are both burrow-nesting seabirds. This shearwater has the typically "shearing" flight of the genus, dipping from side to side on stiff wings with few beats, the wingtips almost touching the water, though in light winds it has a more flapping flight than that of its larger relatives. In flight it looks cross-shaped, with its wings held at right angles to the body, its colouration changing from black to white as the black upperparts and white underparts are alternately exposed as it travels low over the sea.
No audio on this page yet
We only publish recordings we may use commercially, because this site is supported by ads. xeno-canto lists 4 recordings for this species: 4 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 New Zealand in the xeno-canto catalogue.
Related species you can hear
- Manx ShearwaterPuffinus puffinusrecording
This species has no recording here yet — these relatives do, so you can hear what the family sounds like.