Yelkouan shearwater Menorca. A study of these birds recommended that a combination of morphological characteristics and DNA sequence data should be required at least for scientific purposes to assign individual birds to either species. It was formerly considered a subspecies of the Manx shearwater (see there for more on the "Puffinus puffinus" superspecies). After the first split, it was the nominate subspecies of the so-called "Mediterranean shearwater" for nearly ten more years; it is considered a monotypic species now, as the Balearic form "mauretanicus" has been separated as the Balearic shearwater. The yelkouan shearwater appears to belong to a group of Mediterranean
Europa Island 100 pairs, probably of the subspecies "Puffinus lherminieri bailloni" previously considered endemic to the Mascarene Islands), dimorphic egrets and Caspian terns. The island is also home to an endemic subspecies of white-tailed tropicbird ("Phaethon lepturus europae"). There are three species of landbirds present, one of which is an endemic subspecies of the Malagasy white-eye ("Zosterops maderaspatanus voeltzkowi"). Additionally, the island is also home to its own species of hissing cockroach. Climate is affected by the Agulhas Current with water temperatures usually above 30 °C, southeast trade winds during the (austral) winter and occasional cyclones. While the island has probably been