Buller’s Shearwaters are often seen on the boat trip toTiri.

The head and and hindneck is blackish brown, the underneath parts are white and the back and upperwings are grey with a bold dark ‘M’ across the wings, lower back and rump.  The long wedge-shaped tail has a broad black tip and the bluish grey bill with a darker tip is long and slender.  The legs and feet are pink with dark outer toes and outer edge of the tarsus.  They have a braying call.

The diet is small krill, small fish, salps and jellyfish.  Recently they have started to scavenge fish boat scraps.

They breed in large dense colonies at the Poor Knights Islands.  Breeding is between November and May after they return in mid September to court and then clean out their burrows in October.  The single white egg is incubated by both sexes for about 51 days and most chicks fledge at about 90 days old.

During April to late May Buller’s Shearwaters migrate to the northern and eastern North Pacific.

Photography by:  Ian Southey ©

References: Heather, B.D.; Robertson, H.A. 2000 The Field Guide to the Birds of New Zealand. Auckland, Viking.
Moon, G The Reed Field Guide to New Zealand Birds.