Procellaria aequinoctialis
Silhouette: Alexandre Vong · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
The white-chinned petrel (Procellaria aequinoctialis) also known as the Cape hen and shoemaker, is a large petrel in the family Procellariidae. It ranges around the Southern Ocean as far north as southern Australia, Peru and Namibia, and breeds colonially on scattered islands. The white-chinned petrel was formerly considered to be conspecific with the spectacled petrel (Procellaria conspicillata).
In 1747 the English naturalist George Edwards included an illustration and a description of the white-chinned petrel in the second volume of his A Natural History of Uncommon Birds. He used the English name "The great Black Peteril" and based his hand-coloured etching on a preserved specimen that had been brought to London. He believed that it had been collected near the Cape of Good Hope. When in 1758 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the tenth edition, he placed the white-chinned petrel with the other petrels in the genus Procellaria. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Procellaria aequinoctialis and cited Edwards' work.
There are two subspecies: P. a. aequinoctialis - breeds on islets of the temperate and subantarctic... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Table Mountain National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 2 | De Hoop Nature Reserve | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 3 | Fiordland National Park | 🇳🇿 New Zealand | |
| 4 | Rakiura National Park | 🇳🇿 New Zealand | |
| 5 | West Coast National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 6 | iSimangaliso Wetland Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 7 | Garden Route National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Montevideo | 🇺🇾 Uruguay |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a White-chinned Petrel sighting in West Coast National Park on a given day, based on 11 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 170th most-seen of the 192 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 White-chinned Petrel in West Coast National Park on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most White-chinned Petrel sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
5th of 7
Of the 7 parks where we can rate White-chinned Petrel sightings, West Coast National Park ranks 5th at under 5%. The best odds are in Table Mountain National Park (South Africa, about 10%), De Hoop Nature Reserve (South Africa, under 5%) and Fiordland National Park (New Zealand, under 5%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the White-chinned Petrel is recorded against all the birds logged in West Coast National Park (11 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.
