Newell's shearwater donkey-like braying call around the breeding areas. Townsend's shearwater ("P. auricularis") is very similar but has dark undertail-coverts, a shorter tail and a less sharp boundary between the black and white on the face. It was described as a new species "Puffinus newelli" in 1900 by the American ornithologist Henry Wetherbee Henshaw using specimens obtained by Brother Matthias Newell from residents of Maui. It was later included by some authors in the Manx shearwater ("Puffinus puffinus") as was Townsend's shearwater ("Puffinus auricularis"). Later, Townsends's shearwater was raised back to species status with Newell's shearwater as a subspecies of it. This
Flinders Island provided by many small streams, few of them permanently flowing directly leading to the waters of Bass Strait or such a lagoon. The coastal areas are mainly covered in scrub or shrubs, whereas the vegetation at a higher elevation consists of woodland, mainly eucalyptus species. The total number of plant species in the Furneaux Group well exceeds 800, showing the great biodiversity of its ecosystem. Native bird species include the Cape Barren goose ("Cereopsis novaehollandiae") and the short-tailed shearwater ("Puffinus tenuirostris"). Marsupial mammals are represented by Bennett's wallaby ("Macropus rufogriseus"), brushtail possum ("Trichosurus vulpecula"), eastern pygmy possum ("Cercartetus nanus"), potoroo