Fairy Prion (Pachyptila turtur)
About the Fairy Prion
The fairy prion (Pachyptila turtur) is a small seabird with the standard prion plumage of blue-grey upperparts with a prominent dark "M" marking and white underneath. The sexes are alike. It is a small prion which frequents the low subantarctic and subtropic seas. The fairy prion was formally described in 1820 by the German naturalist Heinrich Kuhl under the binomial name Procellaria turtur. It is now placed with the other prions in the genus Pachyptila, introduced in 1811 by Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek pakhus, meaning "dense" or "thick", with ptilon, meaning "feather" or "plumage". The specific epithet turtur is Latin for "turtle dove". The word prion comes from the Ancient Greek word priōn, meaning "a saw", which refers to the serrated edges of its bill.
No audio on this page yet
We only publish recordings we may use commercially, because this site is supported by ads. xeno-canto lists 7 recordings for this species: 1 CC BY-NC-SA. None of them permits commercial use, so there is no player here — the page is kept as a profile so the bird is not missing from the guide.
As soon as someone uploads a freely licensed recording, we mirror it and the player appears here.
Listed as recorded in Australia, New Zealand in the xeno-canto catalogue.
Other birds you can hear here
- Australasian SwamphenPorphyrio melanotusrecording
- Australian Golden WhistlerPachycephala pectoralisrecording
- Australian MagpieGymnorhina tibicenrecording
- Baillon's CrakeZapornia pusillarecording
- Bar-tailed GodwitLimosa lapponicarecording
- Black SwanCygnus atratusrecording
These are the birds recorded alongside it, not close relatives — the site holds no other member of its genus or family yet.