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Vik's Gallery: Fluttering Shearwater (1/1)
PROCELLARIIFORMES: Procellariidae
Puffinus gavia
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© Vik Dunis 2011
Off Port MacDonnell, SA (Jul, 2011)
Shearwaters are a specialised diving bird. They "fly" underwater using their wings, and their feet and tails function as rudders in a similar manner to penguins, awks and diving-petrels.
Other species of diving birds, namely cormorants, ducks, divers and grebes, swim underwater by paddling their feet.*
*Bird Behaviour by Robert Burton, 1985, p.27.
Fluttering Shearwater