Muttonbird

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Muttonbird may refer to various seabirds, particularly petrels in the genus Puffinus, called Shearwaters, where the young birds are harvested for food and oil by being extracted by hand from the nesting burrows before they fledge. Some species are:

• Short-tailed Shearwater, a seabird that nests in south-eastern Australia, particularly in the Furneaux Group of islands in eastern Bass Strait.
• Sooty shearwater, a seabird that nests mainly in New Zealand and islands in the South Atlantic Ocean
• Wedge-tailed Shearwater, a seabird found throughout the tropical and subtropical parts of the Indian and Pacific Oceans

Other uses of the term include:

• The Mutton Birds, a New Zealand band