Sooty shearwater

How it lives

Sooty shearwaters nest in burrows on southern islands, and adults visit them only at night. In New Zealand a pair lays one white egg from late November to mid-December. It hatches after about 53 to 56 days, and the chick fledges after about 86 to 106 days. Birds first breed at about 5 to 7 years and can live more than 25 years. About 92% of adults survive each year.

Where it goes

Sooty shearwaters make one of the longest migrations on record. In a 2006 tracking study of 19 birds from two New Zealand colonies, each bird flew about 64,000 km in a year, in a huge figure-of-eight across the Pacific. The birds stopped in three feeding areas in the North Pacific: off Japan and Kamchatka, in the Gulf of Alaska, and in the California Current.

We only draw a journey on the map when scientists have tracked it or clearly documented it. For this animal we have not found one yet.

Populations

Breeding colonies lie in the South Pacific, around New Zealand and Australia, and in the South Atlantic, including the Falkland Islands, Tierra del Fuego and Tristan da Cunha. NZ Birds Online puts about 21 million birds in New Zealand waters and lists the species as Declining. A 2020 study estimated that the New Zealand population fell from 39.6 million in 1976 to 22.7 million in 2005, about 1.9% a year. It found that climate, bycatch in fishing nets, harvest and introduced predators all play a part. About 11% of chicks were taken in the traditional harvest, a custom of Rakiura Māori families. IUCN assessed the species as Near Threatened in 2019.