Puffinus and cold waters. These tubenose birds fly with stiff wings, and use a shearing flight technique to move across wave fronts with the minimum of active flight. Some small species, such as the Manx shearwater, are cruciform in flight, with their long wings held directly out from their bodies. Many are long-distance migrants, perhaps most spectacularly the sooty and short-tailed shearwaters, which perform migrations of 14,000 km or more each year. "Puffinus" shearwaters come to islands and coastal cliffs only to breed. They are nocturnal at the colonial breeding sites, preferring moonless nights to minimise predation. They nest in burrows
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