Appearance:

Dark-bellied, long-billed shearwater with small head and elongated body. Wings long, narrow and pointed, with pale patches/bands underneath framed in dark base colour of body. Flight fast and powerful. In strong winds hand held pointing slightly backwards. The pale underwing is clearly visible in good light, but the whole bird often seems completely dark. Only shearwater in the region with completely dark underparts, except from dark individuals of the much smaller, and short-winged, Balearic Shearwater. The latter also shows deeper belly and less deep chest. At long distance, and/or bad weather, Sooty Shearwater may be confused with Arctic Skua or even young Gannets. Differs from Gannets by size, shorter neck and no white rump patch. Told from Skuas by bursting series of stiff wing-beats with alternating glides.

Sound:

Mostly heard at breeding ground. A peculiar, rhythmic, coarse moaning, with a disyllabic attack, followed by a deeper, cooing "in-breath".

Song:

Distribution:

Wikipedia: map (se also Xeno-canto below)

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

CC

CC-photo:pablo_caceres_c, Licence,Link.

CC-photo:Jon. D. Anderson, Licence,Link.

Sounds:Creative Commons,www.xeno-canto.org,sjonnoh,http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

Appearance:

A medium sized, long-winged raptor, with deeply forked tail. Adults with warm brown underparts and typical whitish "window" contrasting with black wing tips. Tail rufous above. Easily confused with Black Kite, but this has shallower forked tail and gives a darker brown impression. Note that birds gliding with tail fanned may give impression of less forked tail. Flight elegant, with frequent and typical tail twisting to maintain position in the air.

Sound:

Mainly heard in breeding season. A piercing long whistle, quickly ascending, then descending "piuuu". Often used in movies to give an eerie wildlife mood. Differs from Black Kite in being a clear whistle all the way through the call, without "shivering". Higher pitched than Buzzard, and with less pause between calls.

Call:

Distribution:

Wikipedia: map (se also Xeno-canto below)

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC

CC-sound:Jens Kirkeby, Licence,Link.