White-chinned Petrel

White-chinned Petrel

Procellaria aequinoctialis

Silhouette: Alexandre Vong · PhyloPic

LCNTVUVulnerableENCR
Daily sighting probability <5% · Rare
at Montevideo

In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%

23 Verified sightings at Montevideo
452 In all 7 parks From 2019 to 2026
August Best month
☀️ Diurnal When it's spotted

About the White-chinned Petrel

The white-chinned petrel (Procellaria aequinoctialis) also known as the Cape hen and shoemaker, is a large petrel in the family Procellariidae. It ranges around the Southern Ocean as far north as southern Australia, Peru and Namibia, and breeds colonially on scattered islands. The white-chinned petrel was formerly considered to be conspecific with the spectacled petrel (Procellaria conspicillata).

In 1747 the English naturalist George Edwards included an illustration and a description of the white-chinned petrel in the second volume of his A Natural History of Uncommon Birds. He used the English name "The great Black Peteril" and based his hand-coloured etching on a preserved specimen that had been brought to London. He believed that it had been collected near the Cape of Good Hope. When in 1758 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the tenth edition, he placed the white-chinned petrel with the other petrels in the genus Procellaria. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Procellaria aequinoctialis and cited Edwards' work.

There are two subspecies: P. a. aequinoctialis - breeds on islets of the temperate and subantarctic... Wikipedia →

Sounds

Recording1:29

France · 2020

© Hichem MACHOUK · XC622652 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Call0:26

France · 2020

© Émile Brisson-Curadeau · XC555376 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Call0:12

Chile · 2019

© Cristian Pinto · XC502559 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Global Distribution

Parks Where Found

# Park Country Daily sighting probability
1 Table Mountain National Park 🇿🇦 South Africa
~10%
2 De Hoop Nature Reserve 🇿🇦 South Africa
<5%
3 Fiordland National Park 🇳🇿 New Zealand
<5%
4 Rakiura National Park 🇳🇿 New Zealand
<5%
5 West Coast National Park 🇿🇦 South Africa
<5%
6 iSimangaliso Wetland Park 🇿🇦 South Africa
<5%
7 Garden Route National Park 🇿🇦 South Africa
<5%

Cities Where Found

# City Country Daily sighting probability
1 Montevideo 🇺🇾 Uruguay
<5%

Before you go

What are the chances of seeing a White-chinned Petrel in Montevideo?

Rare

Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a White-chinned Petrel sighting in Montevideo on a given day, based on 23 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 141st most-seen of the 178 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, and over a week to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.

When is the best time to see a White-chinned Petrel in Montevideo?

August

In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a White-chinned Petrel in Montevideo on a given day, against under 5% in September to July, the lowest months.

What time of day is best to see a White-chinned Petrel?

Between 8 and 11 am

Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most White-chinned Petrel sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.

Where else can you see a White-chinned Petrel?

Only Montevideo, in our data

Montevideo is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate White-chinned Petrel sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.

Where does the White-chinned Petrel sighting chance come from?

GBIF citizen-science records

It is estimated from how often the White-chinned Petrel is recorded against all the birds logged in Montevideo (23 verified sightings), 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.

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