Monitoring the occupancy of shearwater burrows routinely involves using tape playback to elicit a vocal response from a nesting bird. This method is widely used by conservationists to census Manx Shearwaters Puffinus puffinus, but it is not known if shearwaters themselves use vocalisation to establish whether a burrow is occupied or not. 

Manx Shearwaters visit nesting colonies at night,

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