Chionis albus
Silhouette: Photo by Peter W. Hills (2014) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The snowy sheathbill (Chionis albus), also known as the greater sheathbill, pale-faced sheathbill, and paddy, is one of two species of sheathbill. It is usually found on the ground. It is the only land bird native to the Antarctic continent.
The snowy sheathbill was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it in a new genus Vaginalis and coined the binomial name Vaginalis alba. Gmelin based his description on the "white sheath-bill" that had been described and illustrated in 1785 by the English ornithologist John Latham
in his A General Synopsis of Birds. Latham erroneously believed that the bird was found in New Zealand. The type locality was designated as the Falkland Islands by Baron Bradford and Charles Chubb in 1912. The snowy sheathbill is now placed in the genus Chionis that was introduced in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Reinhold Forster. The genus name is from the Ancient Greek khiōn meaning snow. The specific epithet albus is Latin meaning "white". The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.
A snowy sheathbill... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Península Valdés | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 2 | Table Mountain National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 3 | Tierra del Fuego National Park | 🇦🇷 Argentina |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Montevideo | 🇺🇾 Uruguay |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Snowy Sheathbill sighting in Table Mountain National Park on a given day, based on 13 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 110th most-seen of the 223 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Snowy Sheathbill in Table Mountain National Park on a given day, against under 5% in July to May, the lowest months. That is one of Table Mountain National Park's wettest months, with about 110 mm of rain against 15 mm in February.
Between 3 and 6 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Snowy Sheathbill sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
2nd of 3
Of the 3 parks where we can rate Snowy Sheathbill sightings, Table Mountain National Park ranks 2nd at under 5%. The best odds are in Península Valdés (Argentina, about 60%).
Same order: Charadriiformes
The closest relatives of the Snowy Sheathbill that you can see in Table Mountain National Park (order Charadriiformes, Shorebirds and Allies) are Dominican Gull (about 50%), Hartlaub's Gull (about 40%) and African Black Oystercatcher (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Snowy Sheathbill is recorded against all the birds logged in Table Mountain National Park (13 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.
