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 picture were taken. To view these photographs go to this web site. http://www.scottspangenberg.com/

What is a Macronesian Shearwater and why isn't it in my bird book?
Once again the taxonomists have been working. The Macronesian Shearwater used to be considered a subspecies of the Little Shearwater Puffinus assimilis. Then again some authors considered it to be a subspecies of Audubon's Shearwater Puffinus lherminieri. Onley and Scoffield ( 2007) have a plate for the Little and Audubon's Shearwater Complex and elevate P.baroli to full species status following the decision of the British Ornithological Union in 2005. See below for more on this change.

Your suspicions will be aroused if you go back to Harrison (1983) and read the opening sentence of the description for Little Shearwater "Fragmented distribution in all three major oceans, range overlaps with Audubon's and Manx Shearwater". Shearwaters like many seabirds tend to return to their natal colonies to breed. This leads to differences between populations and eventually to different species. That is not to imply that the shearwaters have suddenly evolved into different species. Rather it means that intensive study has recently shown the birds to be a separate species. Science marches on.

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.

How can I see it?
Go on many many offshore pelagics and get very lucky. The only photographic 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
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 Spangenberger.

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 that the legs do not extend beyond the tail.

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