The Manx Shearwater (Puffinus puffinus) is a slender, black-and-white seabird that glides low and stiff-winged over the waves, a rare but near-annual visitor to Swedish waters, mainly off the west coast. It belongs to the shearwater family within the tube-nosed seabirds, a group of true ocean-goers that spend most of their lives at sea, breeding colonially in burrows on islands and coasts of the North Atlantic, chiefly in Britain and Ireland. It measures 30–38 cm with a wingspan of roughly 76–89 cm, dark blackish-brown above and clean white below with a sharp division between the two, and narrow, straight, stiff wings that give it its trademark flight — gliding low over the sea surface, tilting from side to side so that upperside and underside alternately face the observer.
The species does not breed in Sweden, and at sea it is silent; at its colonies elsewhere it gives muffled, wailing, cackling calls at night. In Swedish waters it is recorded mainly along the west coast, usually in late summer and autumn when onshore winds push seabirds toward the coast, typically as single birds or small numbers seen from exposed seawatching points. Where it does breed, the pair digs or occupies an earth burrow and the female lays a single egg, with the chick fed over a long period before fledging; since none of this happens in Sweden, only migrating or foraging birds are ever seen here. It feeds on small fish, squid and crustaceans caught by diving and swimming underwater, often near shoals of herring and sprat, and spends nearly its whole life at sea, coming ashore only at night at its breeding colonies to reduce the risk from gulls and other predators — its low, gliding flight with only occasional bursts of wingbeats is what usually gives it away to observers.
Read about this species in Swedish →