Sooty Shearwater
Ardenna grisea
Shearwaters and Petrels (Procellariidae) · Procellariiformes (Procellariiformes)
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Often mixed up with
In quizzes, players most often confuse Sooty Shearwater with these birds— either this species was picked by mistake, or the other way around.
| Species | Mix-ups |
|---|---|
| Balearic Shearwater Puffinus mauretanicus | 61 |
| Manx Shearwater Puffinus puffinus | 46 |
| Leach's Storm-Petrel Hydrobates leucorhous | 33 |
| Northern Fulmar Fulmarus glacialis | 28 |
| European Storm-Petrel Hydrobates pelagicus | 17 |
Family
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 includes the albatrosses and the storm petrels. The procellariids are the most numerous family of tubenoses, and the most diverse.
Order
Procellariiformes is an order of seabirds that comprises four families; the albatrosses, the petrels and shearwaters, and two families of storm petrels. Formerly called Tubinares and still called tubenoses in English, Procellariiformes are often referred to collectively as the petrels, a term that has been applied to all members of the order, or more commonly all the families except the albatrosses. They are almost exclusively pelagic (feeding in the open ocean), and have a cosmopolitan distribution across the world's oceans, …