Wedge-tailed Shearwater

Ardenna pacifica (Gmelin, JF, 1789)

Wedge-tailed Shearwater, Ardenna pacifica, is a shearwater in the petrel family that breeds on islands across the tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans, including Japan, the Revillagigedo Islands, Hawaii, the Seychelles and parts of Australia. Outside the breeding season it ranges widely through the Indian Ocean and Pacific, reaching waters near north-west Africa, India, the Bay of Bengal, Tasmania and the eastern North Pacific. It is also known as a muttonbird. In Hawaii it is called Uau Kani or Koto, and the name Uau Kani refers to its call.

Order

Procellariiformes

Family

Procellariidae — Petrels, Shearwaters, Diving Petrels

Breeding range

Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean: islets of tropical South Indian Ocean: Amirantes and Inner Is. (c, ne Seychelles) and Mascarenes (Malagasy region), Chagos and Cocos (Keeling) (se Indian Ocean), New Guinea region, and w Australia; islets of subtropical and tropical Pacific Ocean: e Australia including Torres Strait is. (ne Australia), Lord Howe and Norfolk is. (far e of Australia), Kermadec Is. (ne of North I., New Zealand); Solomon Is., Vanuatu and New Caledonia; Senkaku (=Pescadores Is.), Ogasawara (=Bonin Is.) and Iwo (=Volcano Is; s of Japan); throughout Micronesia and Polynesia (except Cook and Pitcairn groups); Northwestern and main Hawaiian Is.; and Revillagigedo Is. (far w of c Mexico)

Nonbreeding range

to Arabian Sea coasts of nw Africa and e Malagasy region, s India and Bay of Bengal in tropical Indian Ocean; through seas of s and e Indonesian Arch.; in Pacific, to Tasmania and waters n of North I. (New Zealand) and to coastal waters of e North Pacific from s Baja California (nw Mexico) to s Panama