Sargasso Shearwater

Puffinus lherminieri Lesson, RP, 1839

Procellariidae — Petrels, Shearwaters, Diving Petrels

Sargasso Shearwater, Puffinus lherminieri, is a petrel-family seabird that breeds in the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean, with nesting sites in the Bahamas, off Cuba, east of Puerto Rico, the Lesser Antilles, Providencia Island, the Bocas del Toro archipelago, northern Venezuela and Fernando de Noronha. Outside the breeding season it moves through the western Atlantic, reaching the Gulf Stream as far north as New England and also the Gulf of Mexico. It is the only shearwater that nests mainly in the Caribbean, and it belongs to a species complex once treated under Audubon’s shearwater.

Order: Procellariiformes
Family: Procellariidae — Petrels, Shearwaters, Diving Petrels
Breeding range: Atlantic Ocean: Elbow Cay (e of c Abaco, n Bahamas), Long Cay (Exumas, ec Bahamas), off n Cuba, e of Puerto Rico, and the Lesser Antilles (Caribbean Sea); Crab Cay (Providencia Is., e of Nicaragua); Tiger Cay (Bocos del Toro Arch., Caribbean nw Panama); is. Los Roques, Orchila and Los Hermanos (n of c Venezuela); and islets of Fernando de Noronha (e of n Brazil)
Nonbreeding range: to Gulf Stream n to New England (w North Atlantic) and Gulf of Mexico