CreatureData

Fluttering shearwater

Puffinus gavia (J. R. Forster, 1844)

LCLeast Concernbirds

The fluttering shearwater (Puffinus gavia) is a species in the family Procellariidae, order Procellariiformes. Recorded adults weigh 221.2 g to 245.5 g. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.

Fluttering shearwater (Puffinus gavia)
Photo: JJ Harrison ( https://www.jjharrison.com.au/ ) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Quick facts about the fluttering shearwater

Weight
221.2 g – 245.5 gsrc for Weight
Length
Not recorded
Wingspan
76 cmsrc for Wingspan
Lifespan
Not recorded
Diet
Aquatic predatorsrc for Diet
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
marinesrc for Habitat
Young per litter or clutch
1src for Young per litter or clutch
Lifestyle
Generalistsrc for Lifestyle
Migration
Partialsrc for Migration
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
Countries on record
1 countrysrc for Countries on record

How big is the fluttering shearwater?

FLUTTERING SHEARWATER · WINGSPAN 76 CMADULT HUMAN · HEIGHT 1.7 M
At 76 cm, the recorded maximum wingspan of the fluttering shearwater is about 45% of the height of an adult human (1.7 m, a fixed reference used for scale).

Where does the fluttering shearwater live?

Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.

The fluttering shearwater is listed for 1 country.

Australia
  • Listed
  • Not listed
small islands are not drawn at this scale

The same countries as a list

  1. Australia

Why a country list is not a range map

Listed by: ITIS (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.

What is the fluttering shearwater?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

The fluttering shearwater (Puffinus gavia) is a species of seabird in the family Procellariidae. It is endemic to New Zealand and migrates to Australia and the Solomon Islands. Its natural habitats are open seas and rocky shores. It has been known as Forster's shearwater in the past.

From the Wikipedia article “Fluttering shearwater” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fluttering_shearwater&oldid=1379696617), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.

Is the fluttering shearwater endangered?

The fluttering shearwater is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.

  1. LCLeast Concern
  2. NTNear Threatened
  3. VUVulnerable
  4. ENEndangered
  5. CRCritically Endangered
  6. EWExtinct in the Wild
  7. EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species. What the categories mean.

How is the fluttering shearwater classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classAves
  4. orderProcellariiformes
  5. familyProcellariidae
  6. genusPuffinus
  7. SpeciesPuffinus gavia (J. R. Forster, 1844)

Synonyms Cinathisma cyaneoleuca, Cinathisma cyanoleuca, Procellaria gavia, Puffinus gavia gavia, Puffinus gavis, Puffinus reinholdi, Puffinus reinholdi reinholdi, Puffinus yelkouan gavia, Reinholdia reinholdi byroni, Reinholdia reinholdi melanotis, Reinholdia reinholdi montaguei

Other names and names in other languages (31)
  • Black-vented or fluttering shearwaterEnglish
  • جلم الماء الرفرافArabic
  • baldriga de ForsterCatalan
  • buřňák třepetavýCzech
  • aderyn drycin crynedigWelsh
  • SkærskråpeDanish
  • FlattersturmtaucherGerman
  • novzelanda pufinoEsperanto
  • Pardela gaviaSpanish
  • rand-tormilindEstonian
  • uudenseelanninliitäjäFinnish
  • Puffin volageFrench
  • priobalni zovojCroatian
  • Berta frullinaItalian
  • ミナミミズナギドリJapanese
  • drugelinė audronašaLithuanian
  • PakahāMāori
  • vlinderpijlstormvogelDutch
  • flagrelireNorwegian
  • burzyk nowozelandzkiPolish
  • bobo-agitadoPortuguese
  • fura-bucho-neozelandêsPortuguese
  • pardela-agitadaPortuguese
  • Буроспинный буревестникRussian
  • víchrovník trepotavýSlovak
  • Novozelandski zovojSerbian
  • nyazeelandliraSwedish
  • Dalgıç YelkovanTurkish
  • буревісник австралійськийUkrainian
  • 棕嘴鹱Chinese
  • 鼓翼鸌Chinese

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistTAXREFWikidataWoRMSIUCN Red List

Relatives of the fluttering shearwater

Other species in the same genus Puffinus.

CompareFluttering shearwater vs Manx shearwaterFluttering shearwater vs Balearic shearwaterFluttering shearwater vs Sargasso shearwaterFluttering shearwater vs Little shearwater

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the fluttering shearwater?

An adult fluttering shearwater weighs 221.2 g – 245.5 g and has a wingspan of 76 cm, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Where does the fluttering shearwater live?

Catalogue of Life checklists list the fluttering shearwater for 1 country: Australia. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.

Is the fluttering shearwater endangered?

The fluttering shearwater is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is not currently at risk of extinction.

What kind of animal is the fluttering shearwater?

The fluttering shearwater (Puffinus gavia) belongs to the family Procellariidae in the order Procellariiformes.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Fluttering shearwater (Puffinus gavia). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/fluttering-shearwater

MLA

“Fluttering shearwater (Puffinus gavia).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/fluttering-shearwater.

BibTeX
@misc{fluttering_shearwater_2026,
  title = {Fluttering shearwater (Puffinus gavia)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/fluttering-shearwater},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}