Puffinus
Genus of birds
title: "Puffinus" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["puffinus", "bird-genera", "taxa-named-by-mathurin-jacques-brisson"] description: "Genus of birds" topic_path: "general/puffinus" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puffinus" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Genus of birds ::
| image = Puffinus_gavia_-_SE_Tasmania.jpg | image_caption = Fluttering shearwater, Puffinus gavia | taxon = Puffinus | authority = Brisson, 1760 | type_species =Procellaria puffinus (Manx shearwater) | type_species_authority = Brünnich, 1764 | subdivision_ranks = Species | subdivision = See text | synonyms =
- Thyellodroma
- Hemipuffinus
- Neonectris
Puffinus is a genus of seabirds in the order Procellariiformes that contains about 20 small to medium-sized shearwaters. Two other shearwater genera are named: Calonectris, which comprises three or four large shearwaters, and Ardenna with another seven species (formerly often included within Puffinus).
The taxonomy of this group is the cause of much debate, and the number of recognised species varies with the source.
The species in this group are long-winged birds, dark brown or black above, and white to dark brown below. They are pelagic outside the breeding season. They are most common in temperate and cold waters.
These tubenose birds fly with stiff wings, and use a shearing flight technique to move across wave fronts with the minimum of active flight. Some small species, such as the Manx shearwater, are cruciform in flight, with their long wings held directly out from their bodies.
Many are long-distance migrants, perhaps most spectacularly the sooty and short-tailed shearwaters, which perform migrations of 14,000 km or more each year.
Puffinus shearwaters come to islands and coastal cliffs only to breed. They are nocturnal at the colonial breeding sites, preferring moonless nights to minimise predation. They nest in burrows and often give eerie contact calls on their night-time visits. They lay a single white egg.
They feed on fish, squid and similar oceanic food. Some will follow fishing boats to take scraps, notably the sooty shearwater; these species also commonly follow whales to feed on fish disturbed by them.
Taxonomy
The genus Puffinus was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760 with the Manx shearwater (Puffinus puffinus) as the type species.
Traditionally, Puffinus has been grouped with the Procellaria and Calonectris shearwaters. However, more recent results The former is taxonomically confusing, with species having been split and remerged in the last years.
Puffinus is a Neo-Latin loanword based on the English "puffin". The original Latin term for shearwaters was usually the catchall name for sea-birds, mergus. referred to the cured carcass of the fat nestling of the shearwater, a former delicacy. The original usage dates from at least 1337, but from as early as 1678 the term gradually came to be used for another, unrelated, seabird, the Atlantic puffin, an auk.
Extant species
The genus Puffinus contains the following 21 species: ::data[format=table]
| Image | Scientific name | Common name | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| [[File:Puffinus nat.JPG | 120px]] | Puffinus nativitatis | Christmas shearwater |
| [[File:Manx Shearwater.JPG | 120px]] | Puffinus puffinus | Manx shearwater |
| [[File:Ma - Puffinus yelkouan.jpg | 120px]] | Puffinus yelkouan | Yelkouan shearwater |
| [[File:Puffinus mauretanicus.jpg | 120px]] | Puffinus mauretanicus | Balearic shearwater |
| Puffinus bryani | Bryan's shearwater | Hawaiian Islands | |
| [[File:Black-vented Shearwater, Cabo San Lucas harbor, Baja California del Sur, Mexico, 25 February 2014 (12921391404).jpg | 120px]] | Puffinus opisthomelas | Black-vented shearwater |
| Puffinus auricularis | Townsend's shearwater | Cerro Evermann on Isla Socorro in the Revillagigedo Islands, Mexico, though formerly present on Clarion Island and San Benedicto. | |
| [[File:NEWELL'S SHEARWATER (4-27-2018) holo-holo boat, coast and lehua island, out of port allen, kauai co, hawaii - (2) (41352713635).jpg | 120px]] | Puffinus newelli | Newell's shearwater |
| Puffinus myrtae | Rapa shearwater | islets of Rapa in the Austral Islands of French Polynesia | |
| [[File:Puffinus gavia - SE Tasmania.jpg | 120px]] | Puffinus gavia | Fluttering shearwater |
| [[File:Hutton's shearwater (DOC).jpeg | 120px]] | Puffinus huttoni | Hutton's shearwater |
| [[File:Audobon's Shearwater.jpg | 120px]] | Puffinus lherminieri | Sargasso shearwater |
| Puffinus persicus | Persian shearwater | southern Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Somali coast across the south of the Arabian Peninsula to the Gulf of Oman, Pakistan and western India | |
| [[File:Pétrel de Barau .jpg | 120px]] | Puffinus bailloni | Tropical shearwater or Baillon's shearwater |
| [[File:Puffinus subalaris.jpg | 120px]] | Puffinus subalaris | |
| Puffinus bannermani | Bannerman's shearwater | Volcano Islands in the Ogasawara Group to the southwest of Japan | |
| Puffinus heinrothi | Heinroth's shearwater | the Bismarck Archipelago and northern Solomon Islands | |
| [[File:Barolo Shearwater.jpg | 120px]] | Puffinus assimilis | Little shearwater |
| Puffinus elegans | Subantarctic shearwater | Tristan da Cunha, islands of the southern Indian Ocean and New Zealand Subantarctic Islands | |
| Puffinus baroli | Barolo shearwater | Azores and Canaries | |
| Puffinus boydi | Boyd's shearwater | Cape Verde | |
| :: |
Phylogeny
Phylogeny of the genus based on a study by Joan Ferrer Obiol and collaborators published in 2022. Only 14 of the 21 recognised species were included. |label1=Puffinus |1={{clade |1=Christmas shearwater, Puffinus nativitatis |2={{clade |1={{clade |1=Fluttering shearwater, Puffinus gavia |2=Hutton's shearwater, Puffinus huttoni |2={{clade |1={{clade |1={{clade |1=Sargasso shearwater, Puffinus lhermineri |2={{clade |1=Barolo shearwater, Puffinus baroli |2=Boyd's shearwater, Puffinus boydi |2={{clade |1=Manx shearwater, Puffinus puffinus |2={{clade |1=Balearic shearwater, Puffinus mauretanicus |2=Yelkouan shearwater, Puffinus yelkouan |2={{clade |1={{clade |1=Little shearwater, Puffinus assimilis |2=Subantarctic shearwater, Puffinus elegans |2={{clade |1=Tropical shearwater, Puffinus bailloni |2={{clade |1=Black-vented shearwater, Puffinus opisthomels |2=Newell's shearwater, Puffinus newelli
Fossil record
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Puffinus.png" caption="Comparison between ''P. olsoni'' and ''P. puffinus''"] ::
Several fossil species which became extinct long ago are also known. The proportion of larger ("Neonectris") species apparently was larger before the Pliocene, i.e. before marine mammals diversified:
- "Puffinus" group
- Menorcan shearwater, Puffinus sp. (prehistoric) – possibly extirpated population of extant species; tentatively placed in this group
- Dune shearwater or Hole's shearwater, Puffinus holeae (prehistoric)
- Lava shearwater or Olson's shearwater, Puffinus olsoni (prehistoric) – tentatively placed in this group
- Bermuda shearwater, Puffinus parvus (extinct) – tentatively placed in this group; possibly synonymous with P. lherminieri
- Scarlett's shearwater, Puffinus spelaeus (prehistoric)
- Puffinus tedfordi (Pleistocene of western North America)
- Puffinus nestori (Late Pliocene/Early Pleistocene of Ibiza)
- "Neonectris" group
- Puffinus sp. 1 (Late Miocene/Early Pliocene of Lee Creek Mine, US)
- Puffinus sp. 2 (Late Miocene/Early Pliocene of Lee Creek Mine, US)
- Unassigned:
- ?Puffinus raemdonckii (Early Oligocene of Belgium) – formerly in Larus
- Puffinus micraulax (Early Miocene of C Florida, US) – probably "Puffinus" group
- Puffinus sp. (Early Miocene of Calvert County, US)
- Puffinus sp. (Early Pliocene of South Africa)
- Puffinus felthami (Pleistocene of W North America)
- Puffinus kanakoffi (Pleistocene of W North America)
- "Puffinus" aquitanicus
- Puffinus antiquus
- Puffinus barnesi
- Puffinus calhouni
- Puffinus diatomicus
- Puffinus inceptor
- Puffinus mitchelli
- Puffinus priscus
"Puffinus" arvernensis (Early Miocene of France) is now considered a primitive albatross of the fossil genus Plotornis. Some other species like P. conradi and P. pacificoides have been reclassified as those of Ardenna.
References
References
- Brisson, Mathurin Jacques. (1760). "Ornithologie, ou, Méthode Contenant la Division des Oiseaux en Ordres, Sections, Genres, Especes & leurs Variétés". Jean-Baptiste Bauche.
- (1979). "Check-list of Birds of the World". Museum of Comparative Zoology.
- Remsen, J.V.. (September 2014). "Proposal (647) to South American Classification Committee: Split ''Ardenna'' from ''Puffinus''". South American Classification Committee.
- "Puffin". Oxford University Press.
- Jobling, James A. (2010). "The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names". Christopher Helm.
- "Manx". Oxford University Press.
- (July 2021). "Petrels, albatrosses". International Ornithologists' Union.
- (2022). "Palaeoceanographic changes in the late Pliocene promoted rapid diversification in pelagic seabirds". Journal of Biogeography.
- (2024). "Vocalizations and species limits in the North Atlantic clade of small shearwaters (Procellariiformes: ''Puffinus'')". Biological Journal of the Linnean Society.
- (2024). "A New Diving Pliocene ''Ardenna'' Shearwater (Aves: Procellariidae) from New Zealand". Taxonomy.
- (January 2018). "A new species of Pliocene shearwater (Aves: Procellariidae) from New Zealand". Tuhinga.
- Austin, Jeremy J.. (1996). "Molecular phylogenetics of ''Puffinus'' shearwaters: preliminary evidence from mitochondrial cytochrome ''b'' gene sequences". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution.
- (2004). "A global molecular phylogeny of the small ''Puffinus'' shearwaters and implications for systematics of the Little-Audubon's Shearwater complex". [[Auk (journal).
- (1998). "Phylogenetic relationships in Mediterranean and North Atlantic shearwaters (Aves: Procellariidae) based on nucleotide sequences of mtDNA". Biochemical Systematics and Ecology.
- Olson, Storrs L. (1985): Section X, H, 2. Procellariidae. ''In:'' Farner, D.S.; King, J.R. & Parkes, Kenneth C. (eds.): ''Avian Biology'' 8: 210–211. Academic Press, New York.
- (2004). "Analysis of the taxonomy and nomenclature of the Procellariformes based on complete nucleotide sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome ''b'' gene". [[Emu (journal).
- Thompson, D'Arcy Wentworth. (1918). "The Birds of Diomede". Classical Review.
- Wetmore, Alexander. (1926). "Observations on fossil birds described from the Miocene of Maryland". [[Auk (journal).
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