CreatureData

Blue petrel

Halobaena caerulea (J. F. Gmelin, 1789)

LCLeast Concernbirds

The blue petrel (Halobaena caerulea) is a species in the family Procellariidae, order Procellariiformes. Recorded adults weigh 180 g to 210 g. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.

Blue petrel (Halobaena caerulea)
Photo: JJ Harrison ( https://tiny.jjharrison.com.au/t/JieH9NbS0fOOjZpX ) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Quick facts about the blue petrel

Weight
180 g – 210 gsrc for Weight
Length
Not recorded
Wingspan
58 cm – 71 cmsrc for Wingspan
Lifespan
Not recorded
Diet
Aquatic predatorsrc for Diet
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
marinesrc for Habitat
Egg incubation
46 dayssrc for Egg incubation
Young per litter or clutch
1src for Young per litter or clutch
Litters or clutches a year
0.85src for Litters or clutches a year
Lifestyle
Generalistsrc for Lifestyle
Migration
Partialsrc for Migration
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
Countries on record
1 countrysrc for Countries on record

How big is the blue petrel?

BLUE PETREL · WINGSPAN 71 CMADULT HUMAN · HEIGHT 1.7 M
At 71 cm, the recorded maximum wingspan of the blue petrel is about 42% of the height of an adult human (1.7 m, a fixed reference used for scale).

Where does the blue petrel live?

Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.

The blue petrel is listed for 1 country.

Australia
  • Listed
  • Not listed
small islands are not drawn at this scale

The same countries as a list

  1. Australia

Listed by: ITIS (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.

What is the blue petrel?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

The blue petrel (Halobaena caerulea) is a small seabird in the shearwater and petrel family, Procellariidae. This small petrel is the only member of the genus Halobaena, but is closely allied to the prions. It is distributed across the Southern Ocean but breeds at a few island sites, all close to the Antarctic Convergence zone.

From the Wikipedia article “Blue petrel” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Blue_petrel&oldid=1379042454), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.

Is the blue petrel endangered?

The blue petrel is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.

  1. LCLeast Concern
  2. NTNear Threatened
  3. VUVulnerable
  4. ENEndangered
  5. CRCritically Endangered
  6. EWExtinct in the Wild
  7. EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species.

How is the blue petrel classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classAves
  4. orderProcellariiformes
  5. familyProcellariidae
  6. genusHalobaena
  7. SpeciesHalobaena caerulea (J. F. Gmelin, 1789)

Synonyms Halobaena caerula, Halobaena caerulea victoriae, Halobaena murphyi, Procellaria caerulea, Procellaria forsteri, Procellaria similis

Other names and names in other languages (32)
  • BloustormvoëlAfrikaans
  • نوء أزرقArabic
  • petrell blauCatalan
  • buřňák modravýCzech
  • pedryn glasWelsh
  • Blå PetrelDanish
  • BlausturmvogelGerman
  • BlaumsturmvogelGerman
  • blua petreloEsperanto
  • Petrel azuladoSpanish
  • Halobaena caeruleaSpanish
  • sini-tormilindEstonian
  • siniliitäjäFinnish
  • Prion bleuFrench
  • Pétrel bleuFrench
  • bjelogrli zovojCroatian
  • kék viharmadárHungarian
  • Petrello azzurroItalian
  • アオミズナギドリJapanese
  • mėlynasis audrašauklisLithuanian
  • blauwe stormvogelDutch
  • petrelek modryPolish
  • petrel-azulPortuguese
  • pardela-azulPortuguese
  • Голубой буревестникRussian
  • hladinár modrýSlovak
  • Plava burnicaSerbian
  • blåpetrellSwedish
  • Ak Kuyruklu PriyonTurkish
  • буревісник блакитнийUkrainian
  • 蓝鹱Chinese
  • 藍鋸鸌Chinese

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistTAXREFWikidataWoRMSIUCN Red List

Relatives of the blue petrel

Other species in the same family Procellariidae.

CompareBlue petrel vs Northern fulmarBlue petrel vs Manx shearwaterBlue petrel vs Scopoli's shearwaterBlue petrel vs Sooty shearwater

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the blue petrel?

An adult blue petrel weighs 180 g – 210 g and has a wingspan of 58 cm – 71 cm, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Where does the blue petrel live?

Catalogue of Life checklists list the blue petrel for 1 country: Australia. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.

Is the blue petrel endangered?

The blue petrel is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is not currently at risk of extinction.

What kind of animal is the blue petrel?

The blue petrel (Halobaena caerulea) belongs to the family Procellariidae in the order Procellariiformes.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Blue petrel (Halobaena caerulea). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/blue-petrel

MLA

“Blue petrel (Halobaena caerulea).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/blue-petrel.

BibTeX
@misc{blue_petrel_2026,
  title = {Blue petrel (Halobaena caerulea)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/blue-petrel},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}