Newell's shearwater Newell's shearwater The Newell's shearwater or Hawaiian shearwater ("Puffinus newelli") is a seabird belonging to the genus "Puffinus" in the family Procellariidae. It belongs to a confusing group of shearwaters which are difficult to identify and whose classification is controversial. It was formerly treated as a subspecies of the Manx shearwater ("Puffinus puffinus") and is now often placed in Townsend's shearwater ("Puffinus auricularis"). It is endemic to the Hawaiian Islands It is a fairly small shearwater, in length. The wing is long and the tail is . The bird weighs . The upperparts are black with a brown tinge while
Puffinus and often give eerie contact calls on their night-time visits. They lay a single white egg. They feed on fish, squid and similar oceanic food. Some will follow fishing boats to take scraps, notably the sooty shearwater; these species also commonly follow whales to feed on fish disturbed by them. Traditionally, "Puffinus" has been grouped with the "Procellaria" and "Calonectris" shearwaters. However, more recent results have determined that the genus is apparently paraphyletic and while in part very close to "Calonectris", forms a clade with the genera "Pseudobulweria" and "Lugensa", which were formerly presumed to be gadfly petrels, and can