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
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