Puffinus baroli
The Barolo Shearwater, *Puffinus baroli*, is a small, distinctively agile seabird, endemic to the Macaronesian archipelagos of the eastern Atlantic. Averaging 25-30 cm in length with a wingspan of 55-65 cm, it exhibits classic shearwater plumage: sooty-blackish brown upperparts contrasting sharply with clean white underparts and pale undertail coverts. Its flight is characterized by rapid, stiff wing beats interspersed with short, low glides, often hugging wave troughs. Key field marks includ...
This species is highly pelagic, spending nearly its entire life foraging over open ocean waters. It breeds exclusively on remote, uninhabited oceanic islands and islets, utilizing crevices and burrows on cliff faces and steep slopes.
Their diet primarily consists of small schooling fish (e.g., lanternfish, anchovies), cephalopods (squid), and various crustaceans (e.g., euphausiids), typically caught through surface-seizing or shallow diving.
Barolo Shearwaters are primarily diurnal when at sea, actively foraging over vast expanses of ocean, but exhibit strict nocturnality at their breeding colonies to evade aerial predators like gulls and raptors. Their foraging strategies are diverse, including surface-seizing, 'pattering' with thei...
The Barolo Shearwater is exclusively found in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, endemic to the Macaronesian archipelagos. Its primary breeding grounds are the Azores, Madeira (including the Desertas and Selvagens Islands), and the Canary Islands. Within these island groups, they establish colonies on r...
Least Concern
- This species was named after Giacomo Barolo, an Italian naturalist and ornithologist. - It was only elevated from a subspecies of Little Shearwater (*P. assimilis*) to a full species, *P. baroli*, in 2004, based on significant genetic and morphological differentiation. - Barolo Shearwaters exhi...