• Summary
• Text account
• Data table and detailed info
• Distribution map
• Reference and further resources

Taxonomic note
Ardenna gravis (del Hoyo and Collar 2014) was previously placed in the genus Puffinus.

Taxonomic source(s)
AERC TAC. 2003. AERC TAC Checklist of bird taxa occurring in Western Palearctic region, 15th Draft. Available at: http://www.aerc.eu/DOCS/Bird_taxa_of_the_WP15.xls.
Brooke, M. de L. 2004. Albatrosses and Petrels Across the World. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Christidis, L. and Boles, W.E. 2008. Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds. CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Australia.
Cramp, S. and Simmons, K.E.L. (eds). 1977-1994. Handbook of the birds of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The birds of the western Palearctic. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
del Hoyo, J., Collar, N.J., Christie, D.A., Elliott, A. and Fishpool, L.D.C. 2014. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 1: Non-passerines. Lynx Edicions BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK.
SACC. 2005 and updates. A classification of the bird species of South America. Available at: https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm.

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
-	-	-

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2021	Least Concern
2018	Least Concern
2016	Least Concern
2012	Least Concern
2009	Least Concern
2008	Least Concern
2004	Least Concern
2000	Lower Risk/Least Concern
1994	Lower Risk/Least Concern
1988	Lower Risk/Least Concern

Migratory status	full migrant	Forest dependency	medium
Land-mass type		Average mass	-

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence (breeding/resident)	109,000,000 km2	medium
Severely fragmented?	no	-

	Estimate	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
Population size	10000000 mature individuals	poor	estimated	2004
Population trend	stable	-	suspected	-
Generation length	15.75 years	-	-	-

Population justification: The global population is estimated to number more than 15,000,000 individuals (Brooke 2004), which equates to more than 10,000,000 mature individuals. A minimum of 5,000,000 pairs are thought to breed at Tristan da Cunha, and 600,000 to 3,000,000 pairs at Gough (Carboneras 1992).

Trend justification: The population is suspected to be stable in the absence of evidence for any declines or substantial threats.

Country/Territory	Presence	Origin	Resident	Breeding visitor	Non-breeding visitor	Passage migrant
Algeria	extant	vagrant
Angola	extant	vagrant
Anguilla (to UK)	extant	uncertain
Antigua and Barbuda	extant	uncertain
Argentina	extant	uncertain
Australia	extant	vagrant
Bahamas	extant	uncertain
Barbados	extant	vagrant
Bermuda (to UK)	extant	native				yes
Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba (to Netherlands)	extant	vagrant
Brazil	extant	native			yes
Canada	extant	uncertain
Cape Verde	extant	uncertain
Cayman Islands (to UK)	extant	vagrant
Chile	extant	native			yes
Côte d'Ivoire	extant	uncertain
Curaçao (to Netherlands)	extant	vagrant
Denmark	extant	vagrant
Dominica	extant	vagrant
Dominican Republic	extant	vagrant
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)	extant	native		yes
Faroe Islands (to Denmark)	extant	uncertain
France	extant	native				yes
French Guiana	extant	uncertain
Gabon	extant	vagrant
Gambia	extant	uncertain
Germany	extant	vagrant
Ghana	extant	vagrant
Gibraltar (to UK)	extant	vagrant
Greenland (to Denmark)	extant	native			yes
Grenada	extant	uncertain
Guadeloupe (to France)	extant	vagrant
Guinea	extant	uncertain
Guinea-Bissau	extant	uncertain
Guyana	extant	native				yes
High Seas	extant	native			yes
Iceland	extant	uncertain
Ireland	extant	native				yes
Israel	extant	vagrant
Italy	extant	vagrant
Lebanon	extant	vagrant			yes
Liberia	extant	vagrant
Martinique (to France)	extant	native
Mauritania	extant	uncertain
Mexico	extant	native
Morocco	extant	vagrant
Namibia	extant	uncertain
Netherlands	extant	vagrant
Norway	extant	uncertain
Portugal	extant	native				yes
Puerto Rico (to USA)	extant	uncertain
São Tomé e Príncipe	extant	vagrant			yes
Senegal	extant	uncertain
Sierra Leone	extant	uncertain
Sint Maarten (to Netherlands)	extant	vagrant
South Africa	extant	uncertain
South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands	extant	uncertain
Spain	extant	native				yes
St Helena (to UK)	extant	native		yes
St Lucia	extant	vagrant
St Martin (to France)	extant	uncertain
St Pierre and Miquelon (to France)	extant	native			yes	yes
St Vincent and the Grenadines	extant	uncertain
Suriname	extant	vagrant
Sweden	extant	vagrant
Trinidad and Tobago	extant	vagrant			yes
Turks and Caicos Islands (to UK)	extant	uncertain
United Kingdom	extant	native				yes
Uruguay	extant	uncertain
USA	extant	native			yes
Venezuela	extant	uncertain
Virgin Islands (to UK)	extant	vagrant
Virgin Islands (to USA)	extant	vagrant
Western Sahara	extant	uncertain

Country/Territory	IBA Name
High Seas	Atlantic, Southwest 28 - Marine
High Seas	Atlantic, Southwest 34 - Marine
St Helena (to UK)	Gough Island
St Helena (to UK)	Inaccessible Island
St Helena (to UK)	Nightingale Island group

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Forest	Subantarctic	major	breeding
Grassland	Subantarctic	major	breeding
Marine Neritic	Macroalgal/Kelp	suitable	non-breeding
Marine Neritic	Macroalgal/Kelp	suitable	breeding
Marine Neritic	Pelagic	major	breeding
Marine Neritic	Pelagic	major	non-breeding
Marine Neritic	Seagrass (Submerged)	suitable	non-breeding
Marine Neritic	Seagrass (Submerged)	suitable	breeding
Marine Neritic	Subtidal Loose Rock/pebble/gravel	suitable	non-breeding
Marine Neritic	Subtidal Loose Rock/pebble/gravel	suitable	breeding
Marine Neritic	Subtidal Rock and Rocky Reefs	suitable	non-breeding
Marine Neritic	Subtidal Rock and Rocky Reefs	suitable	breeding
Marine Neritic	Subtidal Sandy	suitable	non-breeding
Marine Neritic	Subtidal Sandy	suitable	breeding
Marine Neritic	Subtidal Sandy-Mud	suitable	non-breeding
Marine Neritic	Subtidal Sandy-Mud	suitable	breeding
Marine Oceanic	Epipelagic (0-200m)	major	non-breeding
Marine Oceanic	Epipelagic (0-200m)	major	breeding
Marine Oceanic	Mesopelagic (200-1000m)	major	non-breeding
Marine Oceanic	Mesopelagic (200-1000m)	major	breeding
Altitude	0 - 600 m	Occasional altitudinal limits

Threat (level 1)	Threat (level 2)	Impact and Stresses
Biological resource use	Fishing & harvesting aquatic resources - Unintentional effects: (large scale) [harvest]	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Majority (50-90%)		Unknown		Unknown
		Stresses Species mortality

Purpose	Scale
Food - human	subsistence, national

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Great Shearwater Ardenna gravis. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/great-shearwater-ardenna-gravis on 04/12/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 04/12/2024.