Cory's

First Confirmed Sighting of Macronesian Shearwater in North American Waters
On August 25, 2007, a Macronesian Shearwater was spotted from the BBC Extreme Pelagic. This bird was very cooperative and many pictures were taken. To view these photographs go to this web site. http://www.scottspangenberg.com/index.html

What is a Macronesian Shearwater and why isn't it in my bird book?
The short answer to this question is that the taxonomy of Little Shearwater and Audubon's Shearwater is under study. Harrison 1983, starts the discussion of the Little Shearwater Puffinus assimilis with this sentence. " Fragmented distribution in all three major oceans..." Shearwaters and other seabirds tend to return to their natal colonies to breed. Any factor that leads to separate breeding populations favors evolution into separate species.

The present status of this shearwater on the America side of the Atlantic is still under discussion and lumped with Little Shearwater. That is where you will find it in the latest edition of Clements Checklist of the Birds of the World. It has not in the past made much difference since the Macronesian Shearwater was not thought to be in our waters until the historic pelagic of August 25, 2007.

Little Shearwater and Audubon's Shearwater
Three birds variously classified as subspecies of Little and Audubon's Shearwater breed in the North Atlantic and are distinguishable in the field.

Harrison 1983 lists 7 or 8 subspecies of Little Shearwater and 9 or 10 subspecies of Audubon's Shearwater. Fortunately we need only deal with three subspecies which breed and disburse in the North Atlantic. Harrison has a subspecies of Little Shearwater Puffinus assimilis baroli. Olney and Scofield 2007 elevate this subspecies to Macronesian Shearwater Puffinus baroli and move the Cape Verde subspecies P. a. boydi to Audubon's Shearwater Puffinus lherminieri boydi

The British Ornithological Union 2005 report combines the Cape Verde subspecies formerly Puffinus assimilis boydi with P.a.baroli as Macronesian Shearwater Puffinus baroli.

Little Shearwater / Audubon's Shearwater Complex - A table to sort it all out maybe!

Harrison 1983	Olney and Scofield 2007	British Ornithological Unionł
Little Shearwater Puffinus assimilis assimilis (SW Pacific) P. a. elegans (southern oceans)	Little Shearwater Puffinus assimilis Subantartic Shearwater Puffinus elegans
P.a. baroli (breeds Azores, Desertas, Salvage and Canary Is) P.a.boydi (Cape Verde Island status under review. Perhaps should be with Audubon's SW)	Macronesian Shearwater Puffinus baroli (Eastern No. Atlantic)	Macaronesian Shearwater P. baroli baroli - (Breeds year round Macronesia except Cape Verde) P. b. boydi - (Breeds year round on Cape Verde Island)
Audubon's Shearwater Puffinus lherminieri	Audubon's Shearwater Puffinus lherminieri lherminieri (Carribean) Puffinus lherminieri boydi (Cape Verdi Islands)	Audubon's Shearwater P. lherminieri (monotypic) (Breeds year round on Carribean Islands, Bermuda)

How can I see it?
Go on many many offshore pelagics and get very lucky. The only photograph documented sighting on the American side of the Atlantic of Macronesian Shearwater was on the August 27, 2007 BBC Extreme Pelagic.

From Wikipedia ˛
Macaronesia is a modern collective name for several groups of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean near Europe and North Africa belonging to three countries: Portugal, Spain, and Cape Verde. The name comes from the Greek for "fortunate islands", a term used by Ancient Greek geographers for islands to the west of the Straits of Gibraltar.

Identification of Macronesian Shearwater on the 8/25/07 Trip
Most closely resembles a Manx or Audubon's Shearwater. See Onley and Scofield 2007 for a complete description of what they call the Manx Type Shearwaters and the Little/Audubons Complex.

Macronesian Shearwater photographed on 8/25/2007 Extreme Pelagic by Scott Spangenberg.

I can do no better than to quote directly Blair Nikula's description from his web page: http://www.capecodbirds.org/Hydrographer/MacronesianShearwater0807.htm

and illustrated in these two photographs.

"... the extensively white face with eye completely surrounded by white;
the rounded head;
small bill;
white undertail coverts;
extensively white underwing with relatively narrow dark border;
blackish dorsal coloration;

pale grayish panel on the upper surface of the wing;
white "tabs" wrapping well around up onto the top sides of the rump;
and white tips on the secondary coverts forming two white bars on the inner wing."

Also observe in both photographs that the legs do not extend beyond the tail.

Macronesian Shearwater photographed by Jeremiah Trimble on August 25,2007.

GEORGE SANGSTER, J. MARTIN COLLINSON, ANDREAS J. HELBIG, ALAN G. KNOX, DAVID T. PARKIN (2005)
Taxonomic recommendations for British birds: third report
Ibis 147 (4), 821826.
doi:10.1111/j.1474-919X.2005.00483.x