Macronectes giganteus
Silhouette: Alexandre Vong · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
The southern giant petrel (Macronectes giganteus), also known as the Antarctic giant petrel, giant fulmar, stinker, and stinkpot, is a large seabird of the southern oceans. Its distribution overlaps broadly with the similar northern giant petrel, though it overall is centered slightly further south. Adults of the two species can be distinguished by the colour of their bill-tip: greenish in the southern and reddish in the northern.
The southern giant petrel was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin. He placed it with all the other petrels in the genus Procellaria and coined the binomial name Procellaria gigantea. Gmelin cited the "giant petrel" that had been described and illustrated in 1785 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his A General Synopsis of Birds.
The southern giant petrel is now placed with the northern giant petrel in the genus Macronectes that was introduced in 1905 by the American ornithologist Charles Wallace Richmond. The genus name Macronectes combines the Ancient Greek makros meaning "great" and nēktēs meaning "swimmer". The specific epithet giganteus is Latin, derived from Greek "gigas", and means "gigantic... Wikipedia →
Call0:08
Argentina · 2011
© Andrew Spencer · XC89727 · CC BY-NC-ND 2.5
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Península Valdés | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 2 | Tierra del Fuego National Park | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 3 | Table Mountain National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 4 | Garden Route National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 5 | Rakiura National Park | 🇳🇿 New Zealand |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Montevideo | 🇺🇾 Uruguay |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Southern Giant Petrel sighting in Table Mountain National Park on a given day, based on 53 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 154th most-seen of the 223 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, and over a week to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Southern Giant Petrel in Table Mountain National Park on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Southern Giant 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.
3rd of 5
Of the 5 parks where we can rate Southern Giant Petrel sightings, Table Mountain National Park ranks 3rd at under 5%. The best odds are in Península Valdés (Argentina, about 70%) and Tierra del Fuego National Park (Argentina, about 20%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Southern Giant Petrel is recorded against all the birds logged in Table Mountain National Park (53 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.
