* Sooty Shearwater  Ardenna grisea

Texas Coastal / Offshore Status: Very rare Visitor to the offshore waters of the Gulf. There are 21 documented records from offshore Texas. 

Habitat: This wide-ranging species is found in deep waters of both Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Similar Species: Although Sooty Shearwater is often indistinguishable from Short-tailed Shearwater (Pacific Ocean), this all dark shearwater with silvery underwing is unlike any other Atlantic Ocean shearwater.

* Texas Review Species, requiring written or photographic documentation to TBRC.
(1) TOS Handbook of Texas Birds; by Mark W. Lockwood and Brush Freeman (2005)
(2) Lower Texas Coast Status from Brad McKinney’s annotated checklist (updated 2009).

Seasonal Occurrence Graph

Texas Pelagics Sightings Distribution

This map shows the geographic distribution of Sooty Shearwater found in Offshore Texas (and Gulf of Mexico)
Click on the box in the upper left of the map to view the map legend.
Click on each sighting symbol and the data label will appear showing the time, date and the number of birds seen.
Click on the symbol on the top right of the map to view a larger map.

© Copyright 1998-2022 Garett Hodne. All materials on all sites within this domain are copyrighted by Garett Hodne. Some individual items may be copyrighted by the author, photographer, or other sources as noted. All rights are reserved. All material is available for personal and private use only. However all material herein may not be reprinted, re-distributed, copied to other websites or reproduced for public use in any way without the express advanced written permission of the webmaster.