Wedge-tailed shearwater

How it lives

Pairs stay together and lay one white egg, in December in the Kermadec Islands. Both parents share incubation, which lasts about 50 to 54 days, and the chick fledges after about 103 to 115 days. Birds begin breeding at about 4 years old, and the oldest recorded lived at least 19 years.

Where it goes

A migratory breeder. Birds travel up to 300 km a day to reach Norfolk Island to breed, then leave again. At dusk they gather on the water in groups, then come ashore after dark. Birds from the Kermadec Islands head about 10,000 km north to the south-east North Pacific in the austral winter.

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

IUCN lists it as Least Concern (assessed 2018). The world population is estimated at over 5 million birds (NZ Birds Online). On Norfolk Island the park service calls it common and a migrant. Phillip Island is an important breeding site for 12 seabird species, including this one, and its rabbits were removed by 1988. I did not open a source with a count for Phillip Island. Reported threats include falling food supply linked to climate change and introduced cats, rats and pigs.