Diagnoza

 Large (length 44–52 cm; wingspan 112–135 cm; body mass 544–738 g), brownish shearwater similar to a miniature albatross, with mostly white underparts and large pale bill; grey-brown cap to below eye (often diffusely darker around eye), and back to scaly mantle and scapulars; rearmost uppertail-coverts usually with variable amount of white forming horseshoe mark, upperwing brown and darkest on primary-coverts and remiges; tertials and lowermost scapulars dark, giving upperparts diffuse dark M pattern; uppertail blackish brown; no sexual or age dimorphism.

Porównanie

Very similar to Cory's shearwater Calonectris borealis but smaller with a weaker beak, which may not be noticeable in the field; more extensive (to hand region) white on underside of wing.

Autekologia

Highly pelagic, usually keeping well away from land, except at colonies; breed on barren islands, occupying cliffs, caves, boulder fields and inland on rocky slopes, up to 435 m above sea-level; nocturnal feeder; eats mainly fish, squid, crustaceans, other zooplankton and offal; foraging by pursuit-plunging, pursuit-diving and surface-seizing, dives to 5,5 m below surface; may forming large flocks, especially when prey is herded close to surface by other predators (dolphins, tuna,  birds).

Występowanie geograficzne

Breeds on the Mediterranean islands and occasionally breeding on Salvage Is.; after breeding season moving to winter mainly in upwelling systems of tropical E Atlantic; in Poland only 3 records between 1912-2011(Stawarczyk et al. 2017).

Zasięg czasowy

Pliocene (Zanclean; 5.3 - 3.6 Ma) – recent; fossil and subfossil material known from Pliocene of Beaufort County (North Carolina, USA) and many (11 coastal and 2 inland) Late  Pleistocene (0.1 - 0.0 Ma) locations from Great Britain, Portugal, Spain and Italy.

Materiały muzealne

many recent, fossil and subfossil collection; in Poland 1 recent skeleton housed in ISEZ (A/4772/90).

Literatura

British Ornithologists' Union. 1946. Seventeenth Report of the Committee on the Nomenclature and Records of the Occurrence of Rare Birds in the British Islands, and on certain necessary Changes in the Nomenclature of the B.O.U. List of British Birds. Ibis 88 (4): 533-534.

Brooke, M. 2004. Albatrosses and Petrels Across the World. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

del Hoyo, J., Carboneras, C., Jutglar, F., Collar, N. and Kirwan, G. M. 2020. Cory's Shearwater (Calonectris diomedea), version 1.0. In: Birds of the World (eds.: Billerman, S. M. ; Keeney, B. K. ; Rodewald, P. G. and Schulenberg, T. S.). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA.

Komisja Faunistyczna Sekcji Ornitologicznej Polskiego Towarzystwa Zoologicznego. 2019. Raport nr 35. Rzadkie ptaki obserwowane w Polsce w roku 2018. Ornis Polonica 60: 125–160.

Mlikovsky, J. 2002. Cenozoic birds of the world, part 1: Europe. Praga, Ninox Press.

Onley, D. i Scofield, P. 2007. Albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters of the world. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.

Scopoli, G. A. 1769. Annus I historico-naturalis. Descriptiones Avium Musei Proprii Earumque Rariorum, Quas Vidit In Vivario Augustiss. Imperatoris.

Shufeldt, R.W. 1896. Fossil bones of birds and mammals from Grotto Pietro Tamponi and Grive-St-Alban. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 1896: 507-516.

Stawarczyk T., Cofta T., Kajzer Z., Lontkowski J., Sikora A. 2017. Rzadkie ptaki Polski. Studio B&W Wojciech Janecki. Sosnowiec.

Stewart, J.R. 2002. Sea-birds from coastal and non-coastal, archaeological and “natural” Pleistocene deposits or not all unexpected deposition is of human origin.  Acta zoologica cracoviensia 45 (special issue): 167-178