Pterodroma mollis
Silhouette: Kimberly Haddrell · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5%
The soft-plumaged petrel (Pterodroma mollis) is a species of seabird in the family Procellariidae. It breeds on islands in the Southern Hemisphere, nesting on Tristan da Cunha, Gough Island, the Prince Edward Islands, Crozet Islands, Macquarie Island, and on the Antipodes Islands of New Zealand. Small numbers breed in the Maatsuyker Island Group of southern Tasmania. It disperses outside the breeding season, reaching eastern South America north to Brazil, southern Africa and Australia. It has occurred as a vagrant in Norway and Jordan.
Fea's petrel (P. feae), Desertas petrel (P. desertae) and Zino's petrel (P. madeira) of the North Atlantic were formerly treated as subspecies of this bird. The soft-plumaged petrel is a medium-sized petrel. Its plumage is dark grey and white, and its wings are narrow and with a pointed tail distinct in flight. It has a dark grey head with prominent white feathers on the cheeks and throat. There is a white speckling on forehead along with a prominent dark eye patch. Its underside is mostly white, which turned dark grey at underwings. The bill is black and about 25–32 mm long and has a sharp hook. Its... Wikipedia →
Call1:02
New Zealand · 2020
© David Boyle · XC927149 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Table Mountain National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
More parks will be added in future updates.
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Soft-plumaged Petrel sighting in Table Mountain National Park on a given day, based on 14 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 190th most-seen of the 223 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Soft-plumaged Petrel in Table Mountain National Park on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Soft-plumaged Petrel sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Table Mountain National Park, in our data
Table Mountain National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Soft-plumaged Petrel sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Soft-plumaged Petrel is recorded against all the birds logged in Table Mountain National Park (14 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.
