Tropical shearwater
Puffinus bailloni (Bonaparte, 1857)
The tropical shearwater (Puffinus bailloni) is a species in the family Procellariidae, order Procellariiformes. Recorded adults weigh 130 g to 214 g and live up to 19 years. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.

Quick facts about the tropical shearwater
- Weight
- 130 g – 214 gsrc for Weight
- Length
- Not recorded
- Wingspan
- 64 cm – 74 cmsrc for Wingspan
- Lifespan
- 19 yearssrc for Lifespan
- Diet
- Aquatic predatorsrc for Diet
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- marinesrc for Habitat
- Egg incubation
- 51 dayssrc for Egg incubation
- Young per litter or clutch
- 1src for Young per litter or clutch
- Age at maturity
- 6.75 yearssrc for Age at maturity
- Litters or clutches a year
- 1src for Litters or clutches a year
- Lifestyle
- Aquaticsrc 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 tropical shearwater?
Where does the tropical 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 tropical shearwater is listed for 1 country.
- Listed
- Not listed
The same countries as a list
Why a country list is not a range map
Listed by: ITIS (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.
What is the tropical shearwater?
The tropical shearwater (Puffinus bailloni) is a seabird in the family Procellariidae formerly considered conspecific with Audubon's shearwater (Puffinus lherminieri).
From the Wikipedia article “Tropical shearwater” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tropical_shearwater&oldid=1385075429), 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 tropical shearwater endangered?
The tropical shearwater is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.
- LCLeast Concern
- NTNear Threatened
- VUVulnerable
- ENEndangered
- CRCritically Endangered
- EWExtinct in the Wild
- 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 tropical shearwater classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classAves
- orderProcellariiformes
- familyProcellariidae
- genusPuffinus
- SpeciesPuffinus bailloni (Bonaparte, 1857)
Synonyms Procellaria nugax bailloni
Other names and names in other languages (37)
- Swartkroonpylstormvoël (Tropiese Kleinpylstormvoël)Afrikaans
- جلم ماء استوائيArabic
- جلم الماء الاستوائيArabic
- baldriga de BaillonCatalan
- buřňák indopacifickýCzech
- Tropisk SkråpeDanish
- Østlig TropeskråpeDanish
- TropensturmtaucherGerman
- tropika pufinoEsperanto
- Pardela tropicalSpanish
- tropiikkiliitäjäFinnish
- Puffin tropicalFrench
- Puffin de BaillonFrench
- יסעור גמדיHebrew
- maskarenski zovojCroatian
- Audubon-vészmadárHungarian
- Berta di BaillonItalian
- トロピカルミズナギドリJapanese
- tropinė audronašaLithuanian
- ട്രോപ്പിക്കൽ തിരവെട്ടിMalayalam
- Karakomrv
- Baillons Kleine PijlstormvogelDutch
- nymfelireNorwegian
- OchaieuPalauan
- burzyk tropikalnyPolish
- pardela-tropicalPortuguese
- pardela-de-audubonPortuguese
- pintainho-dos-trópicosPortuguese
- Белобрюхий буревестникRussian
- víchrovník tropickýSlovak
- Tropski zovojSerbian
- tropikliraSwedish
- Tira'oTahitian
- Tropikal YelkovanTurkish
- буревісник реюньйонськийUkrainian
- 热带鹱Chinese
- 熱帶鸌Chinese
Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistTAXREFWikidataIUCN Red List
Relatives of the tropical shearwater
Other species in the same genus Puffinus.

Manx shearwater
Puffinus puffinus

Balearic shearwater
Puffinus mauretanicus

Sargasso shearwater
Puffinus lherminieri

Little shearwater
Puffinus assimilis

Yelkouan shearwater
Puffinus yelkouan

Christmas shearwater
Puffinus nativitatis
CompareTropical shearwater vs Manx shearwaterTropical shearwater vs Balearic shearwaterTropical shearwater vs Sargasso shearwaterTropical shearwater vs Little shearwater
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
How big is the tropical shearwater?
An adult tropical shearwater weighs 130 g – 214 g and has a wingspan of 64 cm – 74 cm, according to values recorded on Wikidata.
Where does the tropical shearwater live?
Catalogue of Life checklists list the tropical shearwater for 1 country: Australia. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.
Is the tropical shearwater endangered?
The tropical shearwater is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is not currently at risk of extinction.
How long does the tropical shearwater live?
The tropical shearwater has a recorded lifespan of 19 years.
What kind of animal is the tropical shearwater?
The tropical shearwater (Puffinus bailloni) 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.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Tropical shearwater (Puffinus bailloni). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/tropical-shearwater
“Tropical shearwater (Puffinus bailloni).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/tropical-shearwater.
@misc{tropical_shearwater_2026,
title = {Tropical shearwater (Puffinus bailloni)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/tropical-shearwater},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}