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Posted by Graham Langley on 13:24:44 10/04/08
In Reply to: South Beach Shearwater posted by Peter Morris
I have never seen Audubon's in the New World and they vary around the world as there are several populations. Depending on who you read there could be two, three or several species that are small black and white 2Tropical" shearwaters.
as far as I can tell the chances of a Manx, which as British birder I know well, is remote and, as a general rule I always think we should try to ID unusual birds using locally likely ones first.
I've just come back from Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. There are two populations of "tropical" shearwater there. One called Audubons with black vents and a recently described one called Mascarene, (which might turn out to be Audubon's too!)with white vents BUT and here's the bit that relates to your bird..
The Mauritius guide says that juvenile Audubons can have white vents. Assuming that holds true for your Caribbean subspecies I suspect it was a juvenile Audubon's.
actually structurally Manx is larger and has longer thinner wings. Audubon's tends to look dumpy and has rounded wings so it has to flap more often than Manx.
Hope that helps a bit
Graham
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