"Flesh" here being a synonym for "white", as the bird's feet, in much the same way that Crayola had a "flesh" colour until the 1960s, which is obviously racist (photo by Neal Haddaway)

I'm not sure I see how it's obviously racist. Confusing, yes, since ten different people will have ten different impressions of what the bird looks like. But doesn't flesh-coloured just refer that of the person who described it? (Or is there an implicit "my appearance is the only correct one"?)

So what to call them? We wanted to avoid eponyms, and they are superficially similar to other all-dark Ardenna shearwaters. In the end, we settled on "Sable Shearwater" for their dark colour (with a double meaning as they nest in sand, which is "sable" in French)