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Southern Fulmars are medium-sized seabirds. The head is white. Their front (underparts) is all-white, except for black tips on the primaries and narrow black edge lining on the outside of the primaries. The back (upperparts) is mostly grey (mantle, rump, uppertail, wing coverts). Only the flight feathers are black, with white edges on the primaries. The irises are dark. The bill is pinkish, with a black tip. The single nose tube on top of the upper mandible is bluish-grey. The feet do not protrude beyond the 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 Southern Fulmar is available HERE .

Southern Fulmars have a circumpolar distribution around the South pole. They are usually found on islands in the Southern Ocean and along the edge of the Antarctic continent. When not breeding they extend their range to about -40 degrees latitude, thus reaching Tasmania, New Zealand and South America (sometimes also South Africa, at -30 degrees latitude).

Southern Fulmars breed on sub-antarctic islands (most prominently the South Sandwich Islands, South Orkney Islands, South Shetland Islands, Bouvet Island, and Peter I Island) and along the coast of Antarctica. During the rest of the year they spend most of their time above the open ocean. Occasionally, they also appear in coastal waters around Tasmania and along the South coast of the Australian continent, mostly in VIC.

M. Mearns reports spotting Southern Fulmars above the Southern Ocean, between Australia and Antarctica, in January 2005.

More photos shown below were obtained by C. Pears between South America and the Antarctic peninsula in December 2024.