Manx Shearwater

Fascinating facts about the Manx Shearwater

• Imagine a bird that can circle the globe thousands of times in its lifetime – a 50-year-old Manx shearwater may have logged over a million kilometres (600,000 mi) just on migration, and one individual ringed in 1957 was recorded to have flown more than 8 million km (5 million mi) by age 50. Those distances dwarf most human travel records and show how the ocean is a highway for these seabirds.
• When a chick hatches, the parents lay a single white egg that measures just 61 mm × 42 mm (2½ in × 1¾ in) and weighs 57 g (2 oz), with only 7 % of that weight being the shell. This tiny package contains everything the future bird needs to grow before it embarks on its first 2,000 km journey away from home.
• A single night-time flight can take a shearwater from the west coast of Ireland all the way to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a feeding ground up to 1,500 km away, proving that these birds can commute extraordinary distances to feed their young.
• During breeding season, more than 10,000 birds gather on the sea surface in a behaviour called “rafting,” forming a moving halo that pulls away from the island at sunrise and rushes back at dusk, a strategy that likely reduces the risk of predation from gulls and skuas.
• Even if released hundreds of kilometres inland, a Manx shearwater can find its way straight back to its burrow.

About the Manx Shearwater

The Manx shearwater, Puffinus puffinus, is a sleek, medium-sized seabird measuring 30–38 cm in length with a wingspan of 76–89 cm and weighing 350–575 g. Its flight is a graceful, side-to-side “shearing” glide, wings held at right angles to the body, the tips barely skimming the sea surface. In flight the bird flashes a stark contrast as black upperparts and white underparts alternate exposure, creating the illusion of a flying cross. At night the colony is alive with a chorus of raucous croons, howls and screams, the male’s voice punctuated by clear ringing notes that the female lacks, earning the species the eerie nickname “Devil Bird” in many cultures. Entirely marine, the shearwater nests in burrows on remote islands of the North Atlantic, from the United Kingdom and Ireland to Iceland, the Faroe Islands, the Azores, the Canary Islands and Madeira. It commutes up to 1,500 km to offshore feeding grounds, diving for herrings, sprats, sand eels, crustaceans and cephalopods, and even tracking the scent of offal with an acute sense of smell. A surprising trait is its navigational prowess: released hundreds of kilometres inland, a Manx shearwater can home directly back to its burrow, a testament to its remarkable spatial memory and sensory integration.

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