Newell's Shearwater

Basic Description

Newell's Shearwaters are small, crisply marked seabirds that fly on rapid wingbeats low over warm Pacific waters. When they find prey they torpedo into the water, diving as deep as 50 meters to catch squid and fish. This small shearwater breeds on steep mountain slopes in the Hawaiian Islands—nesting in burrows and rock crevices in some of the wettest places on Earth—and then disperses to extremely deep waters in neighboring areas of the tropical Pacific. Newell’s Shearwater is Critically Endangered, with an estimated breeding population of fewer than 20,000 birds facing ongoing threats from introduced predators, habitat loss, and urbanization.