The tropical shearwater (''Puffinus bailloni'') is a

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adaptation, adapted to life within the marine ecosystem, marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent ...

in the family

Procellariidae The family (biology), family Procellariidae is a group of seabirds that comprises the fulmarine petrels, the gadfly petrels, the diving petrels, the prion (bird), prions, and the shearwaters. This family is part of the bird order (biology), orde ...

formerly considered conspecific with

Audubon's shearwater The Sargasso shearwater (''Puffinus lherminieri'') is a small Tropics, tropical seabird in the Procellariidae, petrel family (biology), family. The only shearwater to nest primarily in the Caribbean, it ranges throughout the western Atlantic duri ...

(''Puffinus lherminieri'').

Subspecies

There are five listed

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

of the tropical shearwater: * ''Puffinus bailloni nicolae'' – ( Jouanin, 1971): breeds on islands in the northwest

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

. * ''Puffinus bailloni colstoni'' – ( Shirihai & Christie, 1996): breeds in the

Aldabra Islands The Aldabra Group are part of the Outer Islands of the Seychelles, lying in the southwest of the island nation, around from the capital, Victoria, on Mahé Island. Population and area The group contains four islands and atolls. By far the lar ...

in the

Seychelles Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (; Seychellois Creole: ), is an island country and archipelagic state consisting of 155 islands (as per the Constitution) in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, Victoria, ...

. * ''Puffinus bailloni bailloni'' – ( Bonaparte, 1857):

Mauritius Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Ag ...

Réunion Réunion (; ; ; known as before 1848) is an island in the Indian Ocean that is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France. Part of the Mascarene Islands, it is located approximately east of the isl ...

Europa Island Europa Island (, ), in Malagasy Nosy Ampela is a low-lying tropical atoll in the Mozambique Channel, about a third of the way from southern Madagascar to southern Mozambique. The island had never been inhabited until 1820, when the French fa ...

. * ''Puffinus bailloni dichrous'' – ( Finsch & Hartlaub, 1867): Central

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

islands. * ''Puffinus bailloni gunax'' – ( Mathews, 1930):

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (; ), is an island country in Melanesia located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, east o ...

Range

The tropical shearwater is found in the tropical parts of the western Indian Ocean from

East Africa East Africa, also known as Eastern Africa or the East of Africa, is a region at the eastern edge of the Africa, African continent, distinguished by its unique geographical, historical, and cultural landscape. Defined in varying scopes, the regi ...

to southern

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and in similar regions of the Pacific from just to the southeast of

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

French Polynesia French Polynesia ( ; ; ) is an overseas collectivity of France and its sole #Governance, overseas country. It comprises 121 geographically dispersed islands and atolls stretching over more than in the Pacific Ocean, South Pacific Ocean. The t ...

Population

The total population has not been definitively quantified.

Aride Island Aride Island is the northernmost Granite, granitic island in the Seychelles (Bird Island, Seychelles, Bird Island is the northernmost Seychelles island overall). A nature reserve, it is leased and managed by the Island Conservation Society of Seyc ...

has the world's largest population on a single island with an estimated 26,118 pairs.'' Aride Island Special Reserve Annual Report April 2021 – March 2022. Island Conservation Society'', Island Conservation Society, Seychelles, 2022, p. 11 Smaller numbers of the subspecies ''P. b. bailloni'' breed on the nearby islands of Cousin, Cousine, Recif, and a few other small rat-free islands. Subspecies ''P. b. dichrous'' is estimated to number 1,000–10,000 pairs on the

Line Islands The Line Islands, Teraina Islands or Equatorial Islands () are a chain of 11 atolls (with partly or fully enclosed lagoons, except Vostok and Jarvis) and coral islands (with a surrounding reef) in the central Pacific Ocean, south of the Hawa ...

and 10,000–100,000 pairs on the

Phoenix Islands The Phoenix Islands, or Rawaki, are a group of eight atolls and two submerged coral reefs that lie east of the Gilbert Islands and west of the Line Islands in the central Pacific Ocean, north of Samoa. They are part of the Kiribati, Republic ...

, with the nominate subspecies thought to number 3,000–5,000 pairs on Réunion and fewer than 100 individuals on Europa (reviewed by Brooke 2004), though it is thought there are many more breeding colonies on other islands in the Pacific. The population seems to be stable.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q10809607

Tropical shearwater The tropical shearwater (''Puffinus bailloni'') is a seabird in the family Procellariidae formerly considered conspecific with Audubon's shearwater (''Puffinus lherminieri''). Subspecies There are five listed subspecies of the tropical shearwa ...

Birds of the Indian Ocean Birds of the Pacific Ocean