page_title: Christmas shearwater
section_title: Diet and feeding
hierarchical_section_title: Christmas shearwater / Behaviour / Diet and feeding
caption_attribution_description: Christmas Shearwater Puffinus nativitatis chick
context_page_description: The Christmas shearwater is a medium-sized shearwater of the tropical Central Pacific. It is a poorly known species due to its remote nesting habits, and it has not been extensively studied at sea either.
  It is one member of a very ancient lineage of the small Puffinus species. Its only close living relative is the Galápagos shearwater.
context_section_description: Like its relatives it feeds at sea, predominantly on squid, and fish, mostly flying fish (Exocoetidae) and goatfish (Mullidae). It is highly pelagic and is dependent on predatory fish such as tuna driving prey to the surface. As mentioned above, it does not only have the dramatic stiff-winged "shearing" (dynamic soaring) flight technique which gave the shearwaters their common name. In addition to it, it may use the plesiomorphic flight technique of petrels and similar Procellariidae, moving about with slow, leisurely wingbeats.
caption: Nestling in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands
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