Chionis albus
Silhouette: Photo by Peter W. Hills (2014) · PhyloPic
In 3 days >90%
The snowy sheathbill (Chionis albus), also known as the greater sheathbill, pale-faced sheathbill, and paddy, is one of two species of sheathbill. It is usually found on the ground. It is the only land bird native to the Antarctic continent.
The snowy sheathbill was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it in a new genus Vaginalis and coined the binomial name Vaginalis alba. Gmelin based his description on the "white sheath-bill" that had been described and illustrated in 1785 by the English ornithologist John Latham
in his A General Synopsis of Birds. Latham erroneously believed that the bird was found in New Zealand. The type locality was designated as the Falkland Islands by Baron Bradford and Charles Chubb in 1912. The snowy sheathbill is now placed in the genus Chionis that was introduced in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Reinhold Forster. The genus name is from the Ancient Greek khiōn meaning snow. The specific epithet albus is Latin meaning "white". The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.
A snowy sheathbill...
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands | 🇬🇸 South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands | |
| 2 | Antarctic Peninsula & South Shetland Islands | 🇦🇶 Antarctica | |
| 3 | Península Valdés | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 4 | Falkland Islands | 🇫🇰 Falkland Islands | |
| 5 | Table Mountain National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 6 | Tierra del Fuego National Park | 🇦🇷 Argentina |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Montevideo | 🇺🇾 Uruguay |
Likely
About 60% of wildlife watchers report a Snowy Sheathbill sighting in Antarctic Peninsula & South Shetland Islands on a given day, based on 1,356 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 11th most-seen of the 29 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February and November
In those months about 70% of wildlife watchers report a Snowy Sheathbill in Antarctic Peninsula & South Shetland Islands on a given day, against about 60% in March, October and December–January, the lowest months. April to September have too few records to rate.
Between 3 and 6 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Snowy Sheathbill sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
2nd of 6
Of the 6 parks where we can rate Snowy Sheathbill sightings, Antarctic Peninsula & South Shetland Islands ranks 2nd at about 60%. The best odds are in South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, about 70%). All parks ranked.
Same order: Charadriiformes
The closest relatives of the Snowy Sheathbill that you can see in Antarctic Peninsula & South Shetland Islands (order Charadriiformes, Shorebirds and Allies) are Antarctic Tern (about 90%), Dominican Gull (about 80%) and Brown Skua (about 70%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Snowy Sheathbill is recorded against all the birds logged in Antarctic Peninsula & South Shetland Islands (1,356 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
