Daption capense
Silhouette: Ferran Sayol · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~90% in a week >90%
The pintado petrel (Daption capense), also called the Cape petrel, or Cape fulmar, is a common seabird of the Southern Ocean from the family Procellariidae. It is the only member of the genus Daption, and is allied to the fulmarine petrels and the giant petrels. It is an abundant seabird, with an estimated population of around 2 million.
The pintado petrel was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Procellaria capensis. Linnaeus cited the "white and black spotted peteril" that had been described and illustrated in 1747 by the English naturalist George Edwards in the second volume of his A Natural History of Uncommon Birds. The pintado petrel is now the only species placed in the genus Daption, introduced in 1826 by English naturalist James Francis Stephens. The genus name Daption is an anagram of the Portuguese name "Pintado" which was given to the species by navigators because of its pied plumage. Pintado is Portuguese and Spanish for "painted". The specific epithet capense signifies the Cape of Good Hope, the locality where the type specimen was collected. The word petrel...
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Antarctic Peninsula & South Shetland Islands | 🇦🇶 Antarctica | |
| 2 | South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands | 🇬🇸 South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands | |
| 3 | Rakiura National Park | 🇳🇿 New Zealand | |
| 4 | Falkland Islands | 🇫🇰 Falkland Islands | |
| 5 | Fiordland National Park | 🇳🇿 New Zealand | |
| 6 | Table Mountain National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 7 | Galápagos Islands | 🇪🇨 Ecuador |
Likely
About 50% of wildlife watchers report a Cape Petrel sighting in South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands on a given day, based on 500 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 15th most-seen of the 37 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 90%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May
In that month about 90% of wildlife watchers report a Cape Petrel in South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands on a given day, against about 20% in March, the lowest month. July and August have too few records to rate.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Cape 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.
2nd of 7
Of the 7 parks where we can rate Cape Petrel sightings, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands ranks 2nd at about 50%. The best odds are in Antarctic Peninsula & South Shetland Islands (Antarctica, about 60%).
Same family: Procellariidae
The closest relatives of the Cape Petrel that you can see in South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (family Procellariidae, Shearwaters and Petrels) are Southern Giant Petrel (about 80%), Northern Giant Petrel (about 80%) and White-chinned Petrel (about 60%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Cape Petrel is recorded against all the birds logged in South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (500 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.
