Balearic shearwater is silent at sea, but at night the breeding colonies are alive with raucous cackling calls, higher pitched than the Manx shearwater's. The Balearic shearwater feeds on fish and molluscs. It does not follow boats. Balearic shearwater The Balearic shearwater ("Puffinus mauretanicus") is a medium-sized shearwater in the seabird family "Procellariidae". "Puffinus" is a New Latin loanword based on the English "puffin" and its variants, such as poffin, pophyn and puffing, that referred to the cured carcass of the fat nestling of the Manx shearwater, a former delicacy. The specific "mauretanicus" refers to Mauretania, an old name for an area
Calonectris Calonectris Calonectris is a genus of seabirds. The genus name comes from Ancient Greek "kalos", "good" and "nectris", "swimmer". The genus comprises three large shearwaters. There are two other shearwater genera. "Puffinus", which comprises about twenty small to medium-sized shearwaters, and "Procellaria "with another four large species. The latter are usually named as "petrels", although they are thought to be more closely related to the shearwaters than to the other petrels. The taxonomy of this group is the cause of some debate, and it is only recently that the Cape Verde shearwater has been split from Cory's shearwater. The species