Sargasso Shearwater

Pardela del Sargazo

Puffinus lherminieri

The Sargasso shearwater (Puffinus lherminieri) is a small tropical seabird in the petrel family. The only shearwater to nest primarily in the Caribbean, it ranges throughout the western Atlantic during the non-breeding season. Its specific epithet honours the French naturalist Félix Louis L'Herminier. This bird is part of a species complex formerly known as Audubon's shearwater, or occasionally as dusky-backed shearwater. Most authors now separate this complex into a range of species including the Sargasso shearwater, tropical shearwater, Boyd's shearwater, Barolo shearwater, Bannerman's shearwater, and Persian shearwater. These small seabirds form a cryptic species complex which ornithologists have only recently begun to disentangle.