#1224 · 🐦 birds

Balearic Shearwater

🇳🇱 Vale Pijlstormvogel ·Puffinus mauretanicus

CRcritically endangered 🐦 Birds 📍 in Europe, not in NL

10 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences

1. © Markus Lilje · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
2. Tarragona, ES-CT, ES:© Thibaud Aronson · CC BY-SA 4.0
3. Pyrénées Orientales, France:© Donald Davesne · CC BY 4.0
4. Languedoc-Roussillon, FR:© Eliott Huguet · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
5. Pyrénées Orientales, France:© Donald Davesne · CC BY 4.0
6. © Julien Renoult · CC BY 4.0
7. Spain:© Ricardo Rodero Henández · CC BY-NC 4.0
8. © Vasco Valadares · CC BY-NC 4.0
9. © chacled · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
10. © Daniel Raposo · CC BY-NC 4.0

what is it?

The Balearic shearwater ( Puffinus mauretanicus ) is a medium-sized shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae . Puffinus is a New Latin loanword based on the English "puffin" and its variants, such as poffin, pophyn and puffing, that referred to the cured carcass of the fat nestling of the Manx shearwater, a former delicacy. The specific mauretanicus refers to Mauretania, an old name for an area of North Africa roughly corresponding to Morocco and Algeria.

base stats

NL sightings 0iNaturalist, research grade
worldwide 958iNaturalist observations
threat CRcritically endangered

Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).

fun facts

No confirmed wild sightings in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: you'd have to travel for this one.
958 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
Scientifically named by Percy Lowe in 1921 (105 years ago).
Listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List.