Tropical Audubon Society

South Florida’s Voice of Conservation

On my previous post for the Pelagic trip on August 9th, I incorrectly said we saw both nominate and Scopoli's race. I thought the Cory's was the nominate race, but turns out the Scopoli's is the nominate race. We did see both Cory's and Scopoli's. Here is the Cory's Shearwater complex:

Scopoli's Shearwater (Calonectris diomedea diomedea): nominate race, breeds in the Mediterranean. Best way to tell it apart is the greater extent of white reaching into the tip of the underwing.

Cory's Shearwater (Calonectris diomedea borealis): breeds on islands in the eastern Atlantic

Cape Verde Shearwater (Calonectris edwardsii): separate species, endemic to Cape Verde Islands.

The BOU considers Cory's and Scopoli's separate species, but the AOU does not.