Short-tailed Shearwater

Ardenna tenuirostris (Temminck, 1836)

Short-tailed Shearwater Ardenna tenuirostris breeds on islets off southern and south-eastern Australia, including Bass Strait and Tasmania, and spends the non-breeding season in waters from the Antarctic ice edge to the Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Sea. It is a migratory petrel in the family Procellariidae. The species is also known as slender-billed shearwater, yolla, moonbird and muttonbird. It is one of the most abundant seabirds in Australian waters, and its chicks are commercially taken in Tasmania, especially on the muttonbird islands of the Furneaux Group.

Order

Procellariiformes

Family

Procellariidae — Petrels, Shearwaters, Diving Petrels

Breeding range

Pacific Ocean: islets off s, se Australia, Bass Strait and Tasmania (se Australia)

Nonbreeding range

to Antarctic ice edge waters then to Sea of Okhotsk, Bering Sea (North Pacific Ocean)