Pelecanoides urinatrix
Silhouette: Louis Ranjard · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
The common diving petrel (Pelecanoides urinatrix), also known as the smaller diving petrel or simply the diving petrel, is a diving petrel, one of four very similar auk-like small petrels of the southern oceans. It is native to South Atlantic islands and islands of the subantarctic southern Indian Ocean, islands and islets off New Zealand and south-eastern Australian islands.
The common diving petrel was formally described in 1777 by the German naturalist Johann Reinhold Forster. He placed it with the other petrels in the genus Procellaria and coined the binomial name Procellaria tridactyla. Gmelin based his description on the "diving petrel" that had been described in 1785 by the English ornithologist John Latham in the second volume of his A General Synopsis of Birds. Latham reported that they were found in great numbers in Queen Charlotte Sound at the northern end of South Island, New Zealand. The common diving petrel is now one of four petrels placed in the genus Pelecanoides that was introduced in 1799 by the French naturalist Bernard Germain de Lacépède. The genus name, Pelecanoides, means "Pelican-resembling", which was assigned to the diving petrels on account...
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands | 🇬🇸 South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands | |
| 2 | Rakiura National Park | 🇳🇿 New Zealand | |
| 3 | Falkland Islands | 🇫🇰 Falkland Islands | |
| 4 | Wilsons Promontory National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 5 | Fiordland National Park | 🇳🇿 New Zealand |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Common Diving-Petrel sighting in South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands on a given day, based on 74 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 26th most-seen of the 37 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April and May
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Common Diving-Petrel in South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands on a given day, against about 10% in June and September–March, the lowest months. July and August have too few records to rate.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Common Diving-Petrel sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Yes
Of the 5 parks where we can rate Common Diving-Petrel sightings, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands has the highest daily chance: about 10%. Next come Rakiura National Park (New Zealand, about 10%) and Falkland Islands (Falkland Islands, under 5%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Common Diving-Petrel is recorded against all the birds logged in South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (74 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.
