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Blue Petrels are small seabirds. Their upperparts, including the cap, are bluish-grey, with a clearly contrasting dark-grey "M" pattern spanning from one wing tip to the other. In Blue Petrels this "M" is distinct. Another distinguishing feature is the conspicuous facial pattern, with dark-grey cap, a well-defined eye stripe connecting with a conspicuous bluish-grey half collar down the sides of the neck. The underside (front) is almost all white. The underwings are off-white to light-grey, except for a thin, faint, white trailing edge and a thin, black leading edge near the alula. As opposed to other prions, the undertail is all-white. Also unlike other prions, Blue Petrels have a white terminal band on the uppertail.

Twitcher's tip

While ALL other, similar species have a black tip on their tail (top and bottom), Blue Petrels have a giveaway characteristic feature - a WHITE tip of the tail.

The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org .

The global distribution of the Blue Petrel is available HERE .

Blue Petrels have a rather narrow circumpolar breeding range, using islands from 47 to 56 degrees southern latitudes (i.e., off the Antarctic continent and the polar ice mass). Outside the breeding season they disperse some further and can be found in the southern parts of South America and, in particular, on the islands towards the Antarctic Peninsula. They are regularly found in New Zealand and they occasionally also reach land in southern Australia, but only rarely in South Africa.

Blue Petrels reach the coastline of Australia mostly in an area spanning from the SW tip of WA to the NSW Central Coast, including most prominently Tasmania. They are usually not found close to the coastline, but near the edge of the continental shelf.

Blue Petrels are pelagic birds that spend most of their time out on the open ocean and in coastal waters. They breed on small offshore islands.

We have not seen a Blue Petrel in Australian territory or territorial waters yet. The photos shown below were taken by C. Pears between South America and the Antarctic Peninsula in December 2024. All photographic information presented on this page has been kindly contributed by C. Pears.