Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2025L00287:reg:3:p156
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2025L00287
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 3 (pt 156/276)
Character Range: 592545–595485

Island Group. Notornis 57, 113–127.

Ardenna pacifica—wedge-tailed shearwater, ghost bird

Conservation significance
EPBC Act Listing Status: Marine, migratory (listed marine under the EPBC Act as Puffinus pacificus)
Non-statutory Listing Status: Listed as Least Concern in the Action Plan for Australian Birds 2010 (Garnett et al. 2011)

Distribution
This species is the most common and widespread shearwater in the south-west Pacific and Indian Oceans with many breeding localities. It is a common breeding summer migrant to the Norfolk Island Group where it breeds on all three islands (Schodde et al. 1983) with a total breeding population of several hundreds of thousands of birds (Tarburton 1981). The Phillip Island population was estimated in 2006 as between 1,000–10,000 pairs (Priddel et al. 2010). Black rats have caused populations to decline on some Pacific islands (such as Midway), and feral cats severely damage shearwater colonies (Fitzherbert & Peter 1988).

Ecology
Summer breeder returning to Norfolk Island in October and departing in May. Incubation is 53 days of their single egg and hatching to fledging takes approximately three months. On Norfolk Island the nests are in crowded colonies often concentrated among tussocks of kikuyu (Cenchrus clandestinus). On Phillip Island they are amongst other burrowing species in deeper soils. The nest is at the end of a burrow that can be 1–2 m long.
Diet consists of squid, fish and crustaceans, caught by lunge-diving to two metres.

Habitat
Marine, pelagic mainly in tropical and subtropical waters. Feeds at sea during the day; rafts of birds can often be seen just offshore before they return to the breeding colonies at dusk.

Threats
The main threats to the wedge-tailed shearwater are the reduction in the quality of foraging areas through climate-related shifts in oceanic resources, predation from cats, and degradation and loss of breeding habitat, particularly through weed invasion from kikuyu. Adults and fledglings can get entangled in kikuyu runners. Offshore windfarms along the east coast of Australia may represent an emerging threat due to turbine strike.

Impact on other species
In limited areas on Phillip Island, when adults return to breed, they will evict unfledged providence petrel (Pterodroma solandri) chicks from their burrows.

Management actions
Protect nesting areas through appropriate weed management.

Relevant literature
Christian M (2005) Norfolk Island … the birds. Green Eyes Publications, Norfolk Island.
Garnett ST, Szabo J & Dutson G (2011) The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2010. CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne.
Fitzherbert K & Peter J (1988) Status and movement of Australian migratory birds Vol 1. Procellariiformes Part II. Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union.
Priddel D, Carlile N, Evans O, Evans B & McCoy H (2010) A review of the seabirds of Phillip Island in the Norfolk Island Group. Notornis 57, 113–127.
Schodde R,