Pagodroma nivea
In 3 days ~70% in a week ~90%
The snow petrel (Pagodroma nivea) is the only member of the genus Pagodroma. It is one of only three birds that have been seen at the Geographic South Pole, along with the Antarctic petrel and the south polar skua, and it has the most southerly breeding sites of any bird, inland in Antarctica.
The snow petrel was described in 1777 by the German naturalist Georg Forster in his book A Voyage Round the World. He had accompanied James Cook on Cook's second voyage to the Pacific. We particularly observed a petrel, about the size of a pigeon, entirely white, with a black bill and blueish feet; it constantly appeared about the icy masses, and may be looked upon as a sure fore-runner of ice.
Forster placed the snow petrel in the genus Procellaria that had been erected for the petrels by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 and coined the binomial name Procellaria nivea. The snow petrel is now the only species placed in the genus Pagodroma that was introduced for the snow petrel in 1856 by French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek pagos meaning "frost" or "sea-ice" with dromos meaning "racer" or "runner". The specific epithet is from the Latin niveus...
| # | 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 |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Snow Petrel sighting in South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands on a given day, based on 326 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 19th most-seen of the 37 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 70%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
November and December
In those months about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Snow Petrel in South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands on a given day, against about 10% in January and March–April, 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 Snow Petrel sightings with a recorded time, and about 7 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
2nd of 2
Of the 2 parks where we can rate Snow Petrel sightings, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands ranks 2nd at about 30%. The best odds are in Antarctic Peninsula & South Shetland Islands (Antarctica, about 40%).
Same family: Procellariidae
The closest relatives of the Snow 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 Snow Petrel is recorded against all the birds logged in South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (326 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.
