Which seabird migrates over 30,000 miles annually, from New Zealand to the North Pacific?

The sooty shearwater is the seabird known for an annual migration exceeding 30,000 miles between New Zealand and the North Pacific.

New Zealand’s sooty shearwaters breed on offshore islands and then migrate north after the breeding season. They travel up the western Pacific, reach subarctic feeding waters near Japan, Alaska, and the Aleutian Islands, and return south along the eastern side of the ocean. This route helps them follow productive ocean conditions and experience an “endless summer” across hemispheres.

Electronic tracking has recorded extraordinary distances. One 2006 study found that tagged birds from New Zealand covered about 64,000 kilometres—nearly 40,000 miles—in a year. Individual routes differ, and the exact distance depends on the colony and feeding area, but the species is unquestionably among the world’s longest-distance migrants.

Sooty shearwaters are also called tītī in Māori and muttonbirds in New Zealand. They are not albatrosses, although both are ocean-going seabirds. The Arctic tern can travel even farther in some measurements, making it a common comparison rather than the answer to this question.