CreatureData

Herald petrel

Pterodroma heraldica (Salvin, 1888)

LCLeast Concernbirds

The herald petrel (Pterodroma heraldica) is a species in the family Procellariidae, order Procellariiformes. Recorded adults weigh 280 g to 394 g. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.

Herald petrel (Pterodroma heraldica)
Photo: Plate: John Gerrard Keulemans, 1842--1912 · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Quick facts about the herald petrel

Weight
280 g – 394 gsrc for Weight
Length
Not recorded
Wingspan
88 cm – 1.02 msrc for Wingspan
Lifespan
Not recorded
Diet
Aquatic predatorsrc for Diet
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
marinesrc for Habitat
Young per litter or clutch
1src for Young per litter or clutch
Lifestyle
Aerialsrc 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 herald petrel?

HERALD PETREL · WINGSPAN 1.02 MADULT HUMAN · HEIGHT 1.7 M
At 1.02 m, the recorded maximum wingspan of the herald petrel is about 60% of the height of an adult human (1.7 m, a fixed reference used for scale).

Where does the herald 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 herald 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

Why a country list is not a range map

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

What is the herald petrel?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

The Herald petrel (Pterodroma heraldica) is a species of seabird and a member of the gadfly petrels. Its range includes the south Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean.

From the Wikipedia article “Herald petrel” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Herald_petrel&oldid=1340133761), 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 herald petrel endangered?

The herald 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. What the categories mean.

How is the herald petrel classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classAves
  4. orderProcellariiformes
  5. familyProcellariidae
  6. genusPterodroma
  7. SpeciesPterodroma heraldica (Salvin, 1888)

Synonyms Oestrelata heraldica, Pterodroma arminjoniana heraldica, Pterodroma heraldica heraldica

Other names and names in other languages (36)
  • نوء هيرالدArabic
  • petrell de HeraldCatalan
  • buřňák tonžskýCzech
  • buřňák polynéskýCzech
  • TongapetrelDanish
  • HeraldsturmvogelGerman
  • Wappen-SturmvogelGerman
  • WappensturmvogelGerman
  • heralda petreloEsperanto
  • Petrel HeráldicoSpanish
  • Fardela heráldicaSpanish
  • Petrel del HeraldSpanish
  • kagu-tormilindEstonian
  • tonganviistäjäFinnish
  • Pétrel héraultFrench
  • Diablotin du HeraldFrench
  • Pétrel du HeraldFrench
  • oštrorepi zovojCroatian
  • Petrello di TongaItalian
  • ヘラルドシロハラミズナギドリJapanese
  • audrašauklis pranašasLithuanian
  • Salvins stormvogelDutch
  • heroldpetrellNorwegian
  • petrel pacyficznyPolish
  • freira-de-heraldPortuguese
  • freira-dos-trópicosPortuguese
  • grazina-de-trindadePortuguese
  • Тонгасский тайфунникRussian
  • Тихоокеанский тайфунникRussian
  • Тринидадский тайфунникRussian
  • tajfúnnik zvestovateľSlovak
  • heraldpetrellSwedish
  • Herald FırtınakuşuTurkish
  • тайфунник-провісникUkrainian
  • 信使圆尾鹱Chinese
  • 赫拉德圓尾鸌Chinese

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistTAXREFWikidataWoRMSIUCN Red List

Relatives of the herald petrel

Other species in the same genus Pterodroma.

CompareHerald petrel vs Bermuda petrelHerald petrel vs Great-winged petrelHerald petrel vs Soft-plumaged petrelHerald petrel vs Black-winged petrel

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the herald petrel?

An adult herald petrel weighs 280 g – 394 g and has a wingspan of 88 cm – 1.02 m, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Where does the herald petrel live?

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

Is the herald petrel endangered?

The herald 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 herald petrel?

The herald petrel (Pterodroma heraldica) 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). Herald petrel (Pterodroma heraldica). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/herald-petrel

MLA

“Herald petrel (Pterodroma heraldica).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/herald-petrel.

BibTeX
@misc{herald_petrel_2026,
  title = {Herald petrel (Pterodroma heraldica)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/herald-petrel},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}