Scopoli's Shearwater

About the Scopoli's Shearwater

Scopoli's shearwater (Calonectris diomedea) is a seabird in the petrel family Procellariidae. It breeds on rocky islands and on steep coasts in the Mediterranean but outside the breeding season it forages in the Atlantic. It is brownish grey above with darker wings and mostly white below. The bill is pale yellow with a dark patch near the tip. The sexes are alike. It was formerly considered to be conspecific with Cory's shearwater.

Scopoli's shearwater was formally described in 1769 by the Italian naturalist Giovanni Antonio Scopoli. He placed it with the other petrels in the genus Procellaria and coined the binomial name Procellaria diomedea. Scopoli did not mention a type locality but this was designated in 1946 by the British Ornithologists' Union as the Tremiti Islands in the Adriatic. Scopoli's shearwater is now placed in the genus Calonectris that was introduced in 1915 by the ornithologists Gregory Mathews and Tom Iredale. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek kalos meaning "good" or "noble" with the genus name Nectris that was used for shearwaters by the German naturalist Heinrich Kuhl in 1820. The name Nectris comes from the Ancient Greek nēktris meaning... Wikipedia →