Wedge-tailed Shearwater

Status: IUCN Least Concern

Hawaiian Name:  ‘Ua‘u kani

Scientific Name: Ardenna pacifica (formerly Puffinus pacificus)

Family: Procellaridae

Distribution: This species occurs throughout the tropical Pacific and Indian oceans. Large nesting colonies are located on the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, the main Hawaiian Islands, the Line Islands, and many other island groups.

Population: ~67,000 pairs in the Main Hawaiian Islands and ~230,000 pairs in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Over a million pairs total globally.

Feeding: Diet primarily consists of flying fish and flying squid but they also feed on other small fish as well as crustaceans depending on the time of year. They for forage alone but often gather in feeding flocks around schools of fish, often with other seabird species, and may follow boats in search of food.

Breeding: Individuals spend most of their time at sea and only return to land during the breeding season (March-November). Pairs are monogamous, share incubation duties and caring for the chick after it hatches. Adults will either excavate a burrow in the ground or nest in rock crevices and lay one egg in June. Incubation period lasts approximately 52-55 days and the chick fledges 70-80 days after hatching.

Life Cycle: Breeding begins at ~4 years of age and the oldest known recorded individual was 29 years old.

Threats/Conservation Actions: Habitat loss, depleted food resources, artificial lighting, and invasive predators are some of the threats affecting Wedge-tail shearwater colonies.

PRC and Wedge-tailed Shearwater: PRC biologists monitor Wedge-tailed shearwater reproductive success within Kilauea Point National Widlife Refuge (KPNWR) on Kauai, and at James Campbell National Widllife Refuge (JCNWR) and Kaena Point Natural Area Reserve on Oahu.

Cultural Information: The Hawaiian name translates to “moaning petrel.”

Sources:
https://dlnr.hawaii.gov/wildlife/birds/uau-kani/
https://www.birdsofhawaii.info/p/wedge-tailed-shearwater.html
https://kauaiseabirdproject.org/wedge-tailed-shearwater/
https://hawaiibirdguide.com/wedge-tailed-shearwater/