Pachyptila turtur
Silhouette: Alexandre Vong · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
The fairy prion (Pachyptila turtur) is a small seabird with the standard prion plumage of blue-grey upperparts with a prominent dark "M" marking and white underneath. The sexes are alike. It is a small prion which frequents the low subantarctic and subtropic seas.
The fairy prion was formally described in 1820 by the German naturalist Heinrich Kuhl under the binomial name Procellaria turtur. It is now placed with the other prions in the genus Pachyptila, introduced in 1811 by Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek pakhus, meaning "dense" or "thick", with ptilon, meaning "feather" or "plumage". The specific epithet turtur is Latin for "turtle dove". The word prion comes from the Ancient Greek word priōn, meaning "a saw", which refers to the serrated edges of its bill.
The fairy prion is a member of the genus Pachyptila and of the subgenus Pseudoprion Coues, 1866. Along with the blue petrel, they make up the prions. They in turn are members of the family Procellariidae, and the order Procellariiformes. Prions are small and typically eat just zooplankton but, as members of the Procellariiformes, they share certain identifying features. They... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rakiura National Park | 🇳🇿 New Zealand |
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sydney | 🇦🇺 Australia |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Fairy Prion sighting in Rakiura National Park on a given day, based on 19 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 72nd most-seen of the 80 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.
August
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Fairy Prion in Rakiura National Park on a given day, against under 5% in September to July, the lowest months.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Fairy Prion sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Rakiura National Park, in our data
Rakiura National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Fairy Prion sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Fairy Prion is recorded against all the birds logged in Rakiura National Park (19 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.
