Wedge-tailed Shearwater
Photo: Forest & Kim Starr · CC BY 3.0

Petrels, Shearwaters, and Diving Petrels

Wedge-tailed Shearwater

Ardenna pacifica

LCLeast Concern
Family
Petrels, Shearwaters, and Diving Petrels (Procellariidae)
Order
Procellariiformes

Overview

The wedge-tailed shearwater (Ardenna pacifica) (Uau Kani or Koto in Hawaiian) is a medium-large shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. It is one of the shearwater species that is sometimes referred to as a muttonbird, like the sooty shearwater of New Zealand and the short-tailed shearwater of Australia. It is found throughout the tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans, roughly between latitudes 35°N and 35°S. It breeds on the islands off Japan, on the Islas Revillagigedo, the Hawaiian Islands, the Seychelles, the Northern Mariana Islands, and off Eastern and Western Australia.
Its Hawaiian name "Uau Kani" reflects the sound of their bird call.

Summary from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Range and habitat

Widespread in tropical and subtropical Pacific and Indian oceans, breeding on islets from Seychelles and Mascarenes eastward through Ogasawara and Iwo islands (southern Japan) and northern Australia, thence to Hawaii and Revillagigedo Islands (off central Mexico); ranges from northeastern Africa and Malagasy region eastward to southern Baja California and southward to Panama.

Range description: AviList Global Avian Checklist.

Sources and further reading

Last updated September 29, 2026.