Great Shearwater

Ardenna gravis (O'Reilly, 1818)

Great Shearwater, Ardenna gravis, is a seabird of the family Procellariidae that breeds in the South Atlantic on Kidney Island in the Falkland Islands, and on Nightingale, Inaccessible and Gough in the Tristan da Cunha group. Outside the breeding season it ranges far beyond those islands, reaching the southern Atlantic off South America and southern Africa, and extending north to temperate and Arctic waters of the North Pacific, as well as the coasts of Greenland and north-west Europe. It was first described by O'Reilly in 1818.

Order

Procellariiformes

Family

Procellariidae — Petrels, Shearwaters, Diving Petrels

Breeding range

Atlantic Ocean: Kidney I. (Falkland Is.), Nightingale, Inaccessible and Gough (Tristan da Cunha group; sc Atlantic Ocean)

Nonbreeding range

to s Atlantic off coasts of s South America and s Africa, and n to temperate and Arctic North Pacific Ocean to s coasts of Greenland and nw Europe