eWestern Birds

First Record of Newell’s Shearwater from the Mainland of North America

Philip Unitt, Meryl A. Faulkner, and Charles Swanson

ABSTRACT: A Newell’s Shearwater (Puffinus [auricularis] newelli) captured alive on land at Del Mar, California, on 1 August 2007 was the first of its species to reach the continent of North America or a latitude so far north. The bird was distinguished from the similar Manx (P. puffinus) and Townsend’s (P. [a.] auricularis) Shearwaters by the pattern of its undertail coverts, white basally and black distally, as well as tail length and weight. An attempt to rehabilitate it was unsuccessful, and it died after 10 months in captivity.

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