Flesh-footed Shearwater

Flesh-footed Shearwater (Puffinus carneipes) is a large uniformly dark shearwater with a heavy pale pink bill and flesh-coloured legs and feet. Body shape, bill structure, plumage pattern and voice provide the strongest field characters. Age, sex and season may alter its appearance, so identification should combine several features and careful direct field comparisons with similar species in the same habitat (Wikipedia, general species account).

It ranges across the Indian and Pacific oceans, feeds on squid and fish at or below the surface and breeds in burrows on offshore islands. Its movements and social behaviour vary through the year, with breeding birds generally more dispersed and non-breeding birds gathering where food is concentrated. The Korean vertebrate catalogue used for this guide records the species in South Korea (Wikipedia, general species account; Wildlife of Korea occurrence records).