Birds of India - The New Synopsis

A complete checklist of bird species and subspecies found in India

Procellariiformes (Tube-nosed Swimmers)

Procellariidae (Petrels and Shearwaters)

• Bulweria Bonaparte, 1843 Nuovi Annali delle Scienze Naturali 8(1842) p.426 Procellaria bulwerii Jardine & Selby, 1828; Type by monotypy
  • 328. Jouanin's Petrel Bulweria fallax Jouanin, 1955 [HB#13a]
    Original Description: Bulweria fallax Jouanin, 1955 L'Oiseau et la Revue Française d'Ornithologie 25 p.158,159,160
    Alternative Names: Jouanin's Gadfly Petrel
    Distribution: Non-breeding: Lakshadweep and Arabian Sea from about Gujarat south till Kerala. Stragglers in Bay of Bengal coasts and Andaman Sea.
    Specimens: ZRC
    IUCN: Near Threatened. WLPA: Schedule-II.
    Notes: See Praveen & Kelvin (2013, IB 8 (5): 129) for removal of Mascarene Petrel Pseudobulweria aterrima (Bonaparte, 1855) from the regional list.
  
  
• Calonectris Mathews & Iredale, 1915 Ibis p.590, 592 Procellaria leucomelas Temminck, 1836; Type by original designation
  • 329. Streaked Shearwater Calonectris leucomelas (Temminck, 1836) [HB#7]
    Original Description: Procellaria leucomelas Temminck, 1836 Nouveau recueil de planches coloriées d'oiseaux, pour servir de suite et de complément aux planches enluminées de Buffon livr.99 pl.587
    Alternative Names: White-fronted Shearwater
    Distribution: Non-breeding: Reported sporadically from off-shore waters off Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Andaman Is.
    IUCN: Near Threatened. WLPA: Schedule-II.
    Notes: See van der Berg et al. (1982, Ardea 70 (1): 83), Robertson (1995, FT 10: 132), Karuthedathu et al. (2016, IB 8 (2): 44).
  
  
  • 330. Cory's Shearwater Calonectris borealis (Cory, 1881)
    Original Description: Puffinus borealis Cory, 1881 Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club 6 p.84
    Taxonomy: Formerly treated as a subspecies of C. diomedea.
    Distribution: Vagrant. Reported only from Thaikadappuram (N Kerala).
    Specimens: ZSIKZ
    IUCN: Least Concern. WLPA: Schedule-II.
    Notes: Specimen in ZSI, Kozhikode (ZSI/WGRC/IR/V No. 2466). See Praveen et al. (2013, IB 8 (6): 152).
  
  
• Ardenna Reichenbach, 1853 Avium Systema Naturale. Das natürliche System der Vögel mit hundert Tafeln grösstentheils Original-Abbildungen der bis jetzt entdecken fast zwölfhundert typischen Formen. Vorlaüfer einer Iconographie der Arten der Vögel aller Welttheile p. iv Puffinus major Faber, 1822; Type by original designation = Procellaria gravis O'Reilly, 1818
  • 331. Wedge-tailed Shearwater Ardenna pacifica (Gmelin, 1789)
    Original Description: Procellaria pacifica Gmelin, 1789 Systema Naturae. Editio decima tertia, aucta, reformata. Cura Jo. Frid. Gmelin (etc.). Tomus I. Pars II 1 pt2 p.560
    IUCN: Least Concern. WLPA: Schedule-II.
    • 331a. Ardenna pacifica chlororhyncha (Lesson, 1831) [HB#9]
      Original Description: Puffinus chlororhynchus Lesson, 1831 Traité d'Ornithologie, ou Tableau Méthodique des ordres, sous-ordres, familles, tribus, genres, sous-genres et races d'oiseaux livr.8 p.613
      Taxonomy: Subspecies sometimes not recognised whence treated as monotypic (see IOC, Avilist).
      Distribution: Non-breeding: Bay of Bengal, Andaman Sea, off-shore W coast and stragglers elsewhere.
      Specimens: BNHS, KAUNHM, ZSIAN
      Notes: Regional birds assumed to be from the Indian ocean breeding population.
  
  
  • 332. Short-tailed Shearwater Ardenna tenuirostris (Temminck, 1836) [HB#10]
    Original Description: Procellaria tenuirostris Temminck, 1836 Nouveau recueil de planches coloriées d'oiseaux, pour servir de suite et de complément aux planches enluminées de Buffon livr.99 textpl.587
    Alternative Names: Slender-billed Shearwater
    Distribution: Spring straggler. Reported from Gujarat, West Bengal, and Kerala.
    IUCN: Least Concern. WLPA: Schedule-II.
    Notes: See Giri et al. (2013, IB 8 (5): 131), Praveen et al. (2015, IB 10 (1): 26), Shah et al. (2018, IB 14 (2): 52), De et al. (2020, IB 16 (4): 130).
  
  
  • 333. Sooty Shearwater Ardenna grisea (Gmelin, 1789)
    Original Description: Procellaria grisea Gmelin, 1789 Systema Naturae. Editio decima tertia, aucta, reformata. Cura Jo. Frid. Gmelin (etc.). Tomus I. Pars II 1 pt2 p.564
    Distribution: Spring straggler. Reported from Karnataka and Gujarat.
    Specimens: FL
    IUCN: Near Threatened. WLPA: Recent addition.
    Notes: See Srinivasan et al. (2023, IB 19 (2): 48), Munshi (2025, IB 21 (5): 158). The latter preserved as FTLB-GJ-152001.
  
  
  • 334. Flesh-footed Shearwater Ardenna carneipes (Gould, 1844) [HB#8]
    Original Description: Puffinus carneipes Gould, 1844 The Annals and Magazine of Natural History including Zoology, Botany, and Geology (1), 13 p.365
    Alternative Names: Pink-footed Shearwater (with A. creatopus EL)
    Distribution: Northern summer (=southern winter): Off-shore in Arabian Sea along with SW coast till about Goa, straggling north to Gujarat, seas around Lakshadweep Is., off-shore Tamil Nadu coasts, and Andaman Sea.
    Specimens: BNHS, CMFRI
    IUCN: Near Threatened. WLPA: Schedule-II.
    Notes: See Praveen et al. (2011, IB 7 (3): 66), Karuthedathu et al. (2012, JBNHS 109 (1&2): 55).
  
  
• Puffinus Brisson, 1760 Ornithologia sive synopsis methodica sistens avium divisionem in ordines, sectiones, genera, species, ipsarumaque varietates 1 p.56;6, p.129,130 Puffinus Brisson ; Type by tautonymy = Procellaria puffinus Brünnich, 1764
  • 335. Persian Shearwater Puffinus persicus Hume, 1872
    IUCN: Least Concern. WLPA: Schedule-II.
    • 335a. Puffinus persicus persicus Hume, 1872 [HB#12]
      Original Description: Puffinus Persicus Hume, 1872 Stray Feathers 1 p.5
      Distribution: Non-breeding: Off-shore in Gujarat, as well as off W coast from Mumbai till S Kerala and S Tamil Nadu; also Lakshadweep.
      Specimens: BNHS, TNHM, KAUNHM
  
  
  • 336. Tropical Shearwater Puffinus bailloni Bonaparte, 1857
    Original Description: Procellaria nugax a. bailloni Bonaparte, 1857 Conspectus generum avium 2 p.205
    IUCN: Least Concern. WLPA: Schedule-II.
    • 336a. Puffinus bailloni nicolae Jouanin, 1971 [HB#11]
      Original Description: Puffinus lherminieri nicolae Jouanin, 1971 L'Oiseau et la Revue Française d'Ornithologie 40, pt3-4 p.306
      Distribution: Vagrant. Storm-blown to Gujarat and Kerala coasts apart from off-shore Maharashtra (yet unpublished).
      Specimens: CMFRI
      Notes: Subspecies assumed on range. Specimen (Hirash et al. 2021, Malabar Trogon 18 (2&3): 83) in CMFRI, Kochi (AV #1.1.1.1).
  
  
• Pterodroma Bonaparte, 1856 Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de l'Académie des Sciences 42 p.768 Procellaria macroptera A. Smith, 1840; Type by subsequent designation (Coues, 1866, Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, p.137)
  • 337. Barau's Petrel Pterodroma baraui (Jouanin, 1964)
    Original Description: Bulweria baraui Jouanin, 1964 L'Oiseau et la Revue Française d'Ornithologie 34 p.84
    Distribution: Vagrant. Reported from the 9-degree channel in Lakshadweep Sea and near Little Nicobar.
    IUCN: Endangered. WLPA: Schedule-II.
    Notes: See van den Berg et al (1991, Ardea 79 (1): 1). Record of 'Round Island Petrel' from India could not be ascribed to a particular species (Tatayah et al. 2016, IB 12 (1): 5).