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To understand how animals cope with environmental variability it is necessary to identify the degree of flexibility in a species' diet and foraging mode and the consequences of this flexibility for reproduction. We examined rates of feeding and energy delivery to chicks by a long-lived pelagic seabird, the Short-tailed Shearwater (Puffinus tenuirostris). Individual adults alternated between foraging trips of short and long duration in a dual foraging strategy, but the allocation of time on those trips varied significantly from year to year. In two years when sea-surface temperatures of feeding grounds exploited during short trips were cooler (2005, 2006) adults initially fed their chick more often, then feeding decreased through the chick-rearing period. In the following year of warmer sea-surface temperature (2007), the number of feedings per day was initially low but increased through chick rearing. Despite varied feeding …