White-chinned petrel

How it lives

A large dark petrel with a white patch on the chin or throat, and a pale bill. It flies low, gliding and soaring up to about 10 m above the waves. It nests in colonies in burrows 1 to 3 m deep, with one pair laying a single egg in late November or December. The chick fledges in April or May, after 87 to 106 days. It is mostly solitary at sea but forms flocks around boats.

Where it goes

Ranges across the Southern Ocean, south to the Antarctic pack ice and north to the coasts of southern Africa and South America. It breeds on remote islands including South Georgia, the Prince Edward Islands, the Crozets, Kerguelen, the Falklands, and islands near New Zealand. It is mostly solitary at sea but gathers in numbers around fishing vessels.

We only draw a journey on the map when scientists have tracked it or clearly documented it. For this animal we have not found one yet.

Populations

Vulnerable worldwide (IUCN). About 1.2 million breeding pairs, or around 3 million adults, are estimated (ACAP). More than 100,000 pairs each breed on South Georgia, Kerguelen and the Auckland Islands, and about 200,000 pairs nest on Disappointment Island in the Auckland Islands, according to a New Zealand source. At places with trend records, numbers have fallen by a quarter to a third over about two decades. The main threats are longline hooks and trawl cables at sea, and introduced cats and rodents at nesting islands. It is covered by the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels and by Appendix II of the Convention on Migratory Species.