Small shearwater of the tropical Indian and Pacific Oceans, where it breeds on barren and rocky atolls and islets, venturing offshore to feed. Dark blackish brown above and white below; this combination of pattern and size distinctive within range. Similar to Audubon’s Shearwater of the Atlantic, which has more extensive white on the face, and somewhat similar to larger Manx Shearwater and smaller Little Shearwater, but Tropical has mottled dark undertail coverts (white in Manx and Little).