--- title: "Snow Petrel (Pagodroma nivea) | AnimalTracks.wiki" description: "An all-white Antarctic seabird that sometimes nests hundreds of kilometers inland and spits stomach oil that can build up around its nest for thousands of years." image: "https://animaltracks.wiki/images/animals/snow-petrel-1.webp" published: "2026-09-05" updated: "2026-09-28" --- # Snow Petrel (*Pagodroma nivea*) > **Status**: Checked against 9 sources, listed under Sources below. > **Tagline**: An all-white Antarctic seabird that sometimes nests hundreds of kilometers inland and spits stomach oil that can build up around its nest for thousands of years. > **Soundtrack Vibe**: Dream Pop & Shoegaze // Ride, "Vapour Trail" > **Soundtrack Links**: [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/track/5gLZDzJ4mIWUtYbSWF5sXn) | [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NrGCLSlMj0) > **Vibe Match**: Soaring jangle-pop guitars and dreamlike melodies stacked layer on layer, like the stomach oil snow petrels spit at predators, which builds up around a nest entrance over hundreds or thousands of years. ## Biological Superpowers & Stats - **Taxonomy**: *Pagodroma nivea* - **Danger Level**: Low - **Conservation Status**: Least Concern ([IUCN Red List](https://doi.org/10.2305/iucn.uk.2018-2.rlts.t22697885a132611127.en)) - **Superpower**: A defensive spit of partly digested stomach oil that builds up into nest deposits, some radiocarbon-dated to the last ice age. - **Habitat**: Antarctic pack ice, icebergs and ice floes, breeding colonially on coastal cliffs and on inland nunataks up to 325 kilometers from the sea - **Diet**: Mainly fish, with some squid, other molluscs and krill, plus seal placenta and the carcasses of seals, whales and penguins - **Tags**: bird, antarctic, chemical-defense, polar-icon ## Natural History & Behavior Skating low over Antarctic pack ice, the **Snow Petrel** (*Pagodroma nivea*) looks like a loose scrap of snow that decided to fly. Its plumage is all white apart from dark eyes, a small black bill and blue-grey feet, and it is almost entirely restricted to cold Antarctic waters around pack ice, icebergs and ice floes. ## A Weapon Made of Stomach Oil A snow petrel spits oil made from partially digested krill, squid and fish as a defense against predators, and the oil can accumulate around the nest entrance over hundreds or thousands of years. The deposits are a mix of stomach oil, guano, feathers and wind-blown sediment, and one studied deposit shows distinct layers that built up at rates of up to 30 millimeters per thousand years. > **A defense that outlives the bird** Radiocarbon dating of these deposits has confirmed that snow petrels were present onshore during the Last Glacial Maximum, about 23,000 to 19,000 years ago, when sea ice likely covered twice today's extent. ## Nests on the Roof of Antarctica Snow petrels breed on South Georgia, the South Sandwich and South Orkney Islands, Bouvet, the Balleny Islands, Scott Island, and at numerous sites on the Antarctic Peninsula and continent. Colonies usually sit on cliffs near the sea, but birds sometimes breed as far as 325 kilometers inland, nesting in crevices and scree on nunataks, mountains that poke through the Antarctic Ice Sheet. One white egg is laid in a pebble-lined scrape, usually in a rock crevice, between late November and mid-December. Incubation takes 41 to 49 days and the chick is brooded for 8 days, then stays in the nest for another 7 weeks, leaving between late February and mid-May. ## A Nose for the Ice Birds are widely regarded as relying mainly on sight and hearing, yet the snow petrel's olfactory bulb ratio (the bulb's greatest diameter against the cerebral hemisphere's) is 12 times the black-capped chickadee's, one of the largest measured in birds. Its estimated set of smell-receptor genes is relatively small, though, which the researchers suggest fits a specialist daytime forager whose olfactory system may be highly sensitive to only a limited variety of odours. Snow petrels forage in the sea ice, traveling hundreds of kilometers from their nests. For one Dronning Maud Land nest site, researchers mapped a mean breeding-season foraging range of about 700 kilometers and a maximum of about 2,600. At sea they eat mainly fish, with some squid, other molluscs and krill, and they also feed on seal placenta and the carcasses of dead seals, whales and penguins. ## Built to Last Adults weigh 268 grams on average, but the species varies greatly in size: the largest birds are over twice as heavy as the smallest. Individuals have lived at least 46 years in the wild. At Pointe Géologie in Adélie Land, birds first bred at 9.9 years old on average, and annual adult survival was 93.4% across 21 years of data, though it varied. A later study on Pétrels Island, Terre Adélie, found 44% of the year-to-year variation in adult survival from 1981 to 1997 was linked, inversely, to how far winter sea ice extended offshore. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is a snow petrel's defensive stomach oil actually made of? The oil is generated from whatever krill, squid or fish a bird has partly digested, and old layers keep a chemical record of that meal. Researchers identify krill in a deposit from elevated copper and particular fatty acids, and the deposits keep a record of both the birds' diet and the sea ice where they fed. *(Source: [McClymont et al. 2022]())* ### Why does the snow petrel come in two different sizes? Two forms are recognized, the small *Pagodroma nivea nivea* and the large *P. n. major*. One proposal is that during the Quaternary glaciations small birds survived in a lower-latitude refuge and large birds in a higher-latitude one, then met again when the ice retreated and interbred, creating a hybrid zone. *(Source: [Jouventin & Viot 1985]())* ### How do snow petrels avoid being caught by skuas? They tend to fly low over the water but very high over land, which helps them avoid predators such as South Polar skuas. Skuas are still major predators, and weather is another danger: heavy snow that blocks nest entrances can make adults abandon their eggs, or leave chicks to starve. *(Source: [Australian Antarctic Program 2010]())* ## Sources 1. [McClymont et al. (2022). Snow petrel stomach-oil deposits as a new biological archive of Antarctic sea ice. Past Global Changes Magazine.]() 2. [Steiger et al. (2008). Avian olfactory receptor gene repertoires: evidence for a well-developed sense of smell in birds? Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.]() 3. [Snow petrel. Australian Antarctic Program, 2010.]() 4. [Carboneras, Jutglar & Kirwan (2020). Snow Petrel (Pagodroma nivea). Birds of the World.]() 5. [Chastel, Weimerskirch & Jouventin (1993). High annual variability in reproductive success and survival of an Antarctic seabird, the snow petrel Pagodroma nivea: A 27-year study. Oecologia.]() 6. [Barbraud et al. (2000). Effect of sea-ice extent on adult survival of an Antarctic top predator: the snow petrel Pagodroma nivea. Oecologia.]() 7. [Jouventin & Viot (1985). Morphological and genetic variability of Snow Petrels Pagodroma nivea. Ibis.]() 8. [Pagodroma nivea. AnAge: The Animal Ageing and Longevity Database, Human Ageing Genomic Resources.]() 9. [Pagodroma nivea. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2018: e.T22697885A132611127.]() *Published September 5, 2026. 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