Pachyptila belcheri
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
The slender-billed prion (Pachyptila belcheri) or thin-billed prion, is a species of petrel, a seabird in the family Procellariidae. It is found in the southern oceans. The slender-billed prion was formally described in 1912 by the Australian born ornithologist Gregory Mathews under the binomial name Heteroprion belcheri. The prion is now placed with the other prions in the genus Pachyptila that was introduced in 1811 by the German zoologist 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 belcheri was chosen in recognition of the Australian judge and amateur ornithologist Charles Belcher who had found the first specimens dead on a beach near the town of Geelong in the Australian state of Victoria. The species is considered to be monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.
The name prion comes from the Greek word priōn, meaning "saw", a reference of the serrated edges of the birds' saw-like bill. The slender-billed prion is a member of the Pachyptila genus, which, in combination with the genus Halobaena (whose single species is the blue petrel) makes...
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France · 2020
© Émile Brisson-Curadeau · XC555373 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands | 🇬🇸 South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands | |
| 2 | Falkland Islands | 🇫🇰 Falkland Islands | |
| 3 | Antarctic Peninsula & South Shetland Islands | 🇦🇶 Antarctica |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Slender-billed Prion sighting in South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands on a given day, based on 39 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 28th most-seen of the 37 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Slender-billed Prion in South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands on a given day, against under 5% in February–June and September–December, the lowest months. July and August have too few records to rate.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Slender-billed 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 Slender-billed Prion sightings, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands has the highest daily chance: under 5%. Next come Falkland Islands (Falkland Islands, under 5%) and Antarctic Peninsula & South Shetland Islands (Antarctica, under 5%).
Same genus: Pachyptila
The closest relatives of the Slender-billed Prion that you can see in South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (genus Pachyptila, Prions) are Antarctic Prion (about 40%) and Fairy Prion (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Slender-billed Prion is recorded against all the birds logged in South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (39 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.
