Aphrodroma brevirostris
In 3 days ~10%
The Kerguelen petrel (Aphrodroma brevirostris) is a small (36 cm long) slate-grey seabird in the family Procellariidae. It is the only species placed in the genus Aphrodroma. It is a pelagic, circumpolar seabird of the Southern Ocean. It breeds on islands in the southern Atlantic and Indian Oceans.
The Kerguelen petrel was formally described in 1831 by the French naturalist René Lesson. He placed it in the genus Procellaria that had been erected for the petrels by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 and coined the binomial name Procellaria brevirostris. The Kerguelen petrel was formerly included with the gadfly petrels in the genus Pterodroma and later in the monotypic genre Lugensa but is now placed in the genus Aphrodroma that was introduced for the Kerguelen petrel by Storrs L. Olson in 2000. The name Aphrodroma combines the Ancient Greek aphros meaning "sea foam" with -dromos meaning "-racer".The specific epithet brevirostris is from the Latin brevis meaning "short" and -rostris meaning "-billed". The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.
Kerguelen petrels breed colonially on remote islands; colonies are present on Gough Island in the Atlantic Ocean...
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands | 🇬🇸 South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands |
More parks will be added in future updates.
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Kerguelen Petrel sighting in South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands on a given day, based on 17 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 34th most-seen of the 37 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Kerguelen Petrel in South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands on a given day, against under 5% in June and September–March, the lowest months. July and August have too few records to rate.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Kerguelen 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.
Only South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, in our data
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Kerguelen Petrel sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same family: Procellariidae
The closest relatives of the Kerguelen 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 Kerguelen Petrel is recorded against all the birds logged in South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (17 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.
