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Tuatara: Volume 21, Issues 1 and 2 (New Zealand Albatrosses and Petrels: an Identification Guide)

60. Wedge-Tailed (Hawaiian) Shearwater — (Puffinus pacificus cuneatus) — Plate 21

page 56

60. Wedge-Tailed (Hawaiian) Shearwater
(Puffinus pacificus cuneatus)
Plate 21

For other subspecies see Wedge-tailed Shearwater (17).

Field Characters: 96/43. A large, slender-bodied shearwater, brown above and white below, with long wedge-shaped tail. Upperparts uniformly dark brown, the mantle and scapulars fading progressively as the feathers wear. Underbody white, except for dusky undertail coverts. Underwing white with prominent dark margins.

Bill slender, slate grey; feet pale flesh coloured.

Differs from Buller's Shearwater (24) by the dark margins to its underwings, dark undertail covers and its uniformly dark upper-surface.

For flight behaviour see Wedge-tailed Shearwater (17).

Widely distributed and breeds in the tropical North Pacific, but only rarely crosses the Equator. Once recorded in New Zealand. A small percentage of the Indian Ocean breeding population (17) also have white underparts.