SOUTHEASTERN CARIBBEAN BIRDS PHOTO GALLERY

Trinidad and Tobago Field Naturalists' Club         Southeastern Caribbean Bird Alert         Trinidad and Tobago Rare Bird Committee

VIRGIN ISLANDS

Audubon's Shearwater (Puffinus lherminieri)

Recently fledged juvenile with extensive white undertail coverts at Vessup Bay, St. Thomas, 13 June 2003. Photos © by Floyd Hayes. Audubon's Shearwater typically has dark undertail coverts but a minority of individuals with white undertail coverts resemble Manx Shearwater (P. puffinus). The latter typically has paler primaries on underwing and a notably shorter tail (less black is visible in the underparts), and is not known to nest in the Caribbean.

Adult with extensive white undertail coverts captured at nesting burrow on Green Cay, north of San Salvador Island, Bahamas, May 1994. Photo © by William Hayes.