Pachyptila turtur
Silhouette: Alexandre Vong · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
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...
| # | 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 |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sydney | 🇦🇺 Australia |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Fairy Prion sighting in South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands on a given day, based on 47 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 27th most-seen of the 37 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Fairy Prion in South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands on a given day, against under 5% in January–March and June, 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 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.
Yes
Of the 3 parks where we can rate Fairy Prion sightings, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands has the highest daily chance: about 10%. Next come Rakiura National Park (New Zealand, under 5%) and Falkland Islands (Falkland Islands, under 5%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Fairy Prion is recorded against all the birds logged in South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (47 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.
