Manx Shearwater

Overview
Manx Shearwater: Small shearwater with brown-black upperparts and white underparts, underwings and undertail coverts. Black cap is darker than back. The bill is dark. Wings are long, slim, and straight. Tail is short and pointed. Feeds on fish and squid. Alternates long glides and rapid wing beats.

Range and Habitat
Manx Shearwater: Breeds mainly in eastern Atlantic, but also on islands off Newfoundland, and in Massachusetts (one record). Uncommon visitor off the eastern U.S. coast. Pelagic, comes ashore only to breed.

INTERESTING FACTS
The Manx Shearwater got its common name because at one time it bred on the Calf of Man, a small island just south of the Isle of Man between Ireland and Great Britain. Manx means from the Isle of Man. Despite the scientific name, this species is completely unrelated to the puffins, the only resemblance being that they are both burrow-nesting seabirds. They are very long-lived. A bird breeding on Copeland Island on 2003 was banded as an adult (at least 5 years old) in July 1953; it was retrapped in July 2003, making it at least 55 years old. A group of shearwaters are collectively known as an "improbability" of shearwaters.