Maps of the birds of the Western Palearctic Region

Puffinus yelkouan
Pelagic, breeding on islands in burrows.
P. y. mauretanicus Balearic Is. Ranges at sea in the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic O. along w coasts of Europe and Africa.
P. y. yelkouan Is. in Mediterranean Sea from islets off France, Corsica and Sardinia e to Adriatic and Aegean seas.
Ranges at sea in Mediterranean and Black seas.

Puffinus assimilis
Pelagic, breeding on islands in burrows and crevices in coastal cliffs.
Is. in Atlantic O. in Azores, Cape Verde Is., Desertas (Bugio), Salvage and Canary is., Cima and Baixo is., and Tristan da Cunha group (incl. Gough I.); Australasian region off sw Australia (Houtman Abrolhos Is., Parrakeet islet off Rottnest I., Eclipse I., Arch. Recherche, and many other islands), Admiralty Is. (Roach), Lord Howe group, Norfolk I. (Bird Rocks), Kermadec Is. (Raoul I.), islets off New Zealand (off North I.), and Auckland, Chatham, Antipodes and Tubuai (Rapa) is., possibly Chiloe I. off s Chile. Indian Ocean on St. Paul and formerly on Amsterdam. Ranges at sea widely in e Atlantic and s oceans, rarely n to Hawaiian Is. and Nova Scotia.

Puffinus lherminieri
Pelagic, breeding on islands in rock crevices and on ground under dense vegetation. Is. in Pacific O. from Palau and Mariana and Caroline is. s to Vanuatu and Fiji, Samoa, Society and Gambier is., and Marquesas; Galapagos Is.; Atlantic-Caribbean region e to Nicaragua (Crab Cay off I. Providencia), off Panama (Tiger Rock off Bocas del Toro), off n Venezuela (Los Roques, La Orchila, Los Hermanos), Bermuda, near Puerto Rico (Mona I., and Cayo del Agua off Culebra), Bahamas, Virgin Is. and Lesser Antilles (s to Tobago); Cape Verde Is.; Indian O. off s Oman in se Arabia, Chagos Arch., Seychelles (incl. Amirante Is.), Comoro (Mohéli), Aldabra, Mascarene and Maldive is.
Ranges widely at sea in tropical oceans n to India, c Mexico in the e
Pacific and ne U.S., and s to s Africa, n Australia, New Guinea and Colombia.
Birds from the Cape Verde Is. (boydi) are referred to lherminieri or to P. assimilis by different authors.
The peculiar distribution of morphological types within this complex is somewhat parallel to that of the P. puffinus group; treatment of distinct populations as allospecies seems reasonable.

Puffinus persicus
Pelagic, presumably breeding on islands. Breeding grounds unknown, presumably in s Persian Gulf. Ranges at sea in Arabian Sea region.
This species, P. bannermani and P. heinrothi are sometimes treated as subspecies of P. lherminieri.