Christmas Shearwater

Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.

Sir David Attenborough presents the Christmas shearwater. 2000km south of Hawaii the highly marine Christmas shearwater is at home over the Central Pacific seas, tirelessly riding the air-currents, skimming wave-crests and hugging the contours of the sea looking for food. They rarely come to land as adults, but when they do, it is to return to their place of birth on remote oceanic islands to breed. Here they form loose colonies, laying a single white egg which is incubated for around 50 days. Inhabiting these far flung inaccessible islands means little is known about their biology, but that remoteness gives them protection from land based predators.