A Sooty Shearwater lifts off from the surface of the Santa Barbara Channel. Shearwaters travel in an enormous figure-8 around the Pacific from nesting sites in the far south; some tagged birds traveled 74,000 km, nearly twice the distance around the Earth at the equator. Shearwaters visit the Santa Barbara Channel in May and June. Their hooked beaks make them look like albatrosses, and they are close relatives.
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