[3] The snow petrel was described in 1777 by the German naturalist Georg Forster in his book A Voyage Round the World.

[4] We particularly observed a petrel, about the size of a pigeon, entirely white, with a black bill and blueish feet; it constantly appeared about the icy masses, and may be looked upon as a sure fore-runner of ice.

[10] The two forms hybridise extensively and this has led to uncertainty about the taxonomic status and the precise geographic distribution of the different types.

[11][12] In 1857 Bonaparte in his Conspectus Generum Avium listed subspecies major and minor but as he provided no further information, these names are not recognised and are considered as nomen nudum.

[14] In 1912 Gregory Mathews, in the second volume of his Birds of Australia, treated the larger form as a separate species and introduced the binomial name Pagodroma confusa.

They produce a stomach oil made up of wax esters and triglycerides that is stored in the proventriculus.

This can be sprayed out of their mouths as a defense against predators (principally skuas)[17] and as an energy-rich food source for the chicks and for the adults during their long flights.

[18] Finally, they also have a salt gland situated above the nasal passage which helps desalinate their bodies, due to the high amount of ocean water that they imbibe.

[23] The snow petrel has an occurrence range of 35,900,000 km2 (13,861,067 sq mi), and an estimated population of 4 million adult birds.