They have a global marine distribution, but are most common in temperate and cold waters, and are pelagic outside the breeding season.

[1] Some small species, like the Manx shearwater are cruciform in flight, with their long wings held directly out from their bodies.

For instance, during their seasonal migration towards the Black Sea they would circumvent the entire Peloponnese instead of crossing over the 6 km Isthmus of Corinth.

The chicks of some species, notably short-tailed and sooty shearwaters, are subject to harvesting from their nest burrows for food, a practice known as muttonbirding, in Australia and New Zealand.

Recent genomic studies show that Shearwaters form a clade with Procellaria, Bulweria and Pseudobulweria.