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:

Differs from Arctic Tern in longer head, and more orangy red, rather than deep red, bill. Tip of bill usually black. Legs longer, but tail streamers shorter than AT. Underparts of primaries with diffusely bordered dark trailing edge (sharply bordered in Arctic Tern). Upper side of primaries with dark wedge (less apparent in winter). Secondaries opaque. Crest more apparent than in Arctic Tern and underside whiter. Juveniles with buff back.

Sound:

Similar to Arctic Tern but deeper. Lacks latter's high pitched "tip-tip-tip" call, and the drawn out "kree-aaahh" call falls more distinctly in pitch.

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:Eetu Paljakka, Licence,Link.