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

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

in the family

Procellariidae The family Procellariidae is a group of seabirds that comprises the fulmarine petrels, the gadfly petrels, the diving petrels, the prions, and the shearwaters. This family is part of the bird order Procellariiformes (or tubenoses), which also ...

formerly considered conspecific with

Audubon's shearwater Audubon's shearwater (''Puffinus lherminieri'') is a common Tropics, tropical seabird in the Procellariidae, petrel family (biology), family. Sometimes known as the dusky-backed shearwater,Carboneras (1992) the specific epithet (zoology), specifi ...

(''Puffinus lherminieri'').

Subspecies

There are five listed subspecies 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 ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by ...

. * ''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. The largest in ...

in the

Seychelles Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (french: link=no, République des Seychelles; Creole: ''La Repiblik Sesel''), is an archipelagic state consisting of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, ...

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

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

Réunion Réunion (; french: La Réunion, ; previously ''Île Bourbon''; rcf, label= Reunionese Creole, La Rényon) is an island in the Indian Ocean that is an overseas department and region of France. It is located approximately east of the island ...

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 fam ...

. * ''Puffinus bailloni dichrous'' – ( Finsch &

Hartlaub Karel Johan Gustav Hartlaub (8 November 1814 – 29 November 1900) was a German physician and ornithologist. Hartlaub was born in Bremen, and studied at Bonn and Berlin before graduating in medicine at Göttingen. In 1840, he began to study and ...

, 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 definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

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

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of no ...

Range

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

East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa: Due to the histori ...

to southern

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

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

French Polynesia )Territorial motto: ( en, "Great Tahiti of the Golden Haze") , anthem = , song_type = Regional anthem , song = "Ia Ora 'O Tahiti Nui" , image_map = French Polynesia on the globe (French Polynesia centered).svg , map_alt = Location of French ...

Population

The total population has not been definitively quantified. 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 (in Gilbertese, ''Aono Raina'') are a chain of 11 atolls (with partly or fully enclosed lagoons) and coral islands (with a surrounding reef) in the central Pacific Ocean, south of the Haw ...

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 Republic of Kiriba ...

, 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 Tropical shearwater Birds of the Indian Ocean Birds of the Pacific Ocean Tropical shearwater Tropical shearwater