Puffinus bannermani
Bannerman's Shearwater (Puffinus bannermani) is a slender, medium-sized seabird, an enigmatic denizen of the vast North Pacific. Measuring 27-30 cm (10.6-11.8 in) in length with a wingspan of 64-67 cm (25-26 in) and weighing 170-210 g (6-7.4 oz), it showcases a striking bicolored plumage. Its upperparts are a uniform sooty-brown to blackish, sharply contrasting with immaculate white underparts, a classic identification mark that helps distinguish it from similar shearwaters. It possesses a da...
This is a strictly pelagic seabird, spending most of its life over open ocean waters, returning only to remote oceanic islands for breeding. Breeding colonies are typically found on rocky slopes or sandy ground near coastlines.
Their diet primarily consists of small fish, squid, and crustaceans, obtained through surface-seizing and shallow pursuit-diving in open ocean waters.
Bannerman's Shearwater is largely diurnal at sea, actively foraging during daylight hours, but becomes strictly nocturnal when visiting its breeding colonies to avoid aerial predators. At sea, it exhibits classic shearwater flight, alternating between rapid, stiff-winged beats and long, dynamic g...
Bannerman's Shearwater is a highly localized breeder, endemic to the remote Ogasawara (Bonin) Islands and Volcano (Kazan) Islands of Japan in the Northwest Pacific. While breeding has been confirmed on these islands, there is also speculation of breeding occurring on Marcus (Minami-Torishima) Isl...
Least Concern
- Named after British ornithologist David Armitage Bannerman, who described it in 1914. - It is one of the smallest shearwater species in the world, though larger than most storm-petrels. - Bannerman's Shearwater is endemic to a very small and remote cluster of islands in the Western Pacific, mak...