 It utters a donkey-like braying call around the breeding areas.Townsend's shearwater ("P. auricularis") is very similar but has dark undertail-coverts, a shorter tail and a less sharp boundary between the black and white on the face.It was described as a new species "Puffinus newelli" in 1900 by the American ornithologist Henry Wetherbee Henshaw using specimens obtained by Brother Matthias Newell from residents of Maui.