Broad-billed prion

Pachyptila vittata (G. Forster, 1777)

The broad-billed prion (Pachyptila vittata) is a species in the family Procellariidae, order Procellariiformes. Recorded adults weigh about 196 g. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.

Photo: pjd1 · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons

Quick facts about the broad-billed prion

Weight: 196 gsrc for Weight
Length: Not recorded
Wingspan: 57 cm – 66 cmsrc for Wingspan
Lifespan: Not recorded
Diet: Aquatic predatorsrc for Diet
Main food: Not recorded
Habitat: marinesrc for Habitat
Egg incubation: 56 dayssrc for Egg incubation
Young per litter or clutch: 1src for Young per litter or clutch
Litters or clutches a year: 1src 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 broad-billed prion?

At 66 cm, the recorded maximum wingspan of the broad-billed prion is about 39% of the height of an adult human (1.7 m, a fixed reference used for scale).

Where does the broad-billed prion 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 broad-billed prion is listed for 1 country.

Listed
Not listed

small islands are not drawn at this scale

The same countries as a list

Australia

Why a country list is not a range map

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

What is the broad-billed prion?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

The broad-billed prion (Pachyptila vittata) is a small pelagic seabird in the shearwater and petrel family, Procellariidae. It is the largest prion, with grey upperparts plumage, and white underparts. The sexes are alike. It ranges from the southeast Atlantic to New Zealand mainly near the Antarctic Convergence. In the south Atlantic it breeds on Tristan da Cunha and Gough Island; in the south Pacific it breeds on islands off the south coast of South Island, New Zealand and on the Chatham Islands. It has many other names that have been used such as blue-billed dove-petrel, broad-billed dove-petrel, long-billed prion, common prion, icebird, and whalebird.

From the Wikipedia article “Broad-billed prion” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Broad-billed_prion&oldid=1354732985), 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 broad-billed prion endangered?

The broad-billed prion is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.

LCLeast Concern
NTNear Threatened
VUVulnerable
ENEndangered
CRCritically Endangered
EWExtinct in the Wild
EXExtinct

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

How is the broad-billed prion classified?

kingdomAnimalia
phylumChordata
classAves
orderProcellariiformes
familyProcellariidae
genusPachyptila
SpeciesPachyptila vittata (G. Forster, 1777)

Synonyms Pachyptila forsteri, Pachyptila vittata balaena, Pachyptila vittata keyteli, Pachyptila vittata vittata, Prion vittatus keyteli, Procellaria forsteri, Procellaria vittata

Other names and names in other languages (35)

PararaEnglish
BreëbekwalvisvoëlAfrikaans
بريون واسع المنقارArabic
petrell prió becampleCatalan
buřňák širokozobýCzech
prion aeliogWelsh
Brednæbbet HvalfuglDanish
Großer EntensturmvogelGerman
Forster-EntensturmvogelGerman
larĝbeka petreletoEsperanto
Prión piquianchoSpanish
Petrel-paloma de pico anchoSpanish
Prión pico anchoSpanish
mustnokk-vaalalindEstonian
leveänokkaprioniFinnish
Prion de ForsterFrench
krupnokljuni zovojCroatian
szélescsőrű cethojszaHungarian
Prione beccolargoItalian
ヒロハシクジラドリJapanese
plačiasnapis prionasLithuanian
PararāMāori
breedbekprionDutch
brednebbhvalfuglNorwegian
petrelek szerokodziobyPolish
faigão-de-bico-largoPortuguese
Ширококлювый прионRussian
Ширококлювая китовая птичкаRussian
hladinár širokozobýSlovak
Širokokljuni prionSerbian
brednäbbad valfågelSwedish
Büyük PriyonTurkish
пріон широкодзьобийUkrainian
闊嘴鋸鸌Chinese
阔嘴锯鹱Chinese

Catalogue of Life Wikipedia iNaturalist TAXREF Wikidata WoRMS IUCN Red List

Relatives of the broad-billed prion

Other species in the same genus Pachyptila.

Antarctic prion

Pachyptila desolata

Procellariidae

Slender-billed prion

Pachyptila belcheri

Procellariidae

Fairy prion

Pachyptila turtur

Procellariidae

Fulmar prion

Pachyptila crassirostris

Procellariidae

Salvin's prion

Pachyptila salvini

Procellariidae

MacGillivray's prion

Pachyptila macgillivrayi

Procellariidae

CompareBroad-billed prion vs Antarctic prion Broad-billed prion vs Slender-billed prion Broad-billed prion vs Fairy prion Broad-billed prion vs Fulmar prion

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the broad-billed prion?

An adult broad-billed prion weighs 196 g and has a wingspan of 57 cm – 66 cm, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Where does the broad-billed prion live?

Catalogue of Life checklists list the broad-billed prion for 1 country: Australia. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.

Is the broad-billed prion endangered?

The broad-billed prion 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 broad-billed prion?

The broad-billed prion (Pachyptila vittata) 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.

An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1
AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7
Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf
Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence).
Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service).
Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Broad-billed prion (Pachyptila vittata). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/broad-billed-prion

MLA

“Broad-billed prion (Pachyptila vittata).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/broad-billed-prion.

BibTeX

@misc{broad_billed_prion_2026,
  title = {Broad-billed prion (Pachyptila vittata)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/broad-billed-prion},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}