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Albatross Breeding Species 
10,000 Birds
JUNE 1, 2011
It’s winter down here for sure now, and winter in Kaikoura , on the coast of South Island north of Christchurch, means one thing, albatrosses! I took a lot of photos but today I’ll just be sharing the ones of the Buller’s Albatross , Thalassarche bulleri , known here as the Buller’s Mollymawk.
260 
10,000 Birds
DECEMBER 7, 2011
While I often tease Corey about how many albatrosses we have down here in New Zealand, the fact is that the United States has three species of Albatross that breed within its boundaries, albeit one of them only very rarely, and visit the western shores of North America. The dances of the albatrosses are famous.
233
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10,000 Birds
APRIL 25, 2012
You’ll need to find yourself an albatross. Gratuitous Black-browed Albatross photo ( Thalassarche melanophrys ) not engaging in dancing Albatrosses are the longest lived of an already long lived order of birds, the petrels, and are in fact among the longest lived of all birds. So what is going on?
257 
10,000 Birds
JUNE 11, 2014
There was a time when albatross taxonomy was quite simple. Actually, I lie, albatross taxonomy has always been a mess, but there was a period of relative calm, from the sixties to the ninties, when there were about 12 species in two genera. Does eBird recognize the same species that Wikipedia does? Does it hell.
215 
10,000 Birds
DECEMBER 5, 2012
This Sunday I will be off the coast of Kaikoura on South Island for the first time since 2008 checking out the amazing albatrosses they have there. While albatrosses are found year-round on the tours out of Kaikoura, the best season for them is winter and not all species are common year round. Kaikoura dawn at my last visit.
157 10,000 Birds
OCTOBER 2, 2013
The important thing is that I get to see albatrosses and he doesn’t. I mean, granted, he does live near the North Atlantic, the one ocean pretty much bereft of albatrosses (it wasn’t always that way, by the way). The Black-footed Albatross. I was lucky to work with the species on Tern Island in French Frigate Shoals.
157 
10,000 Birds
FEBRUARY 13, 2013
Kaikoura, in New Zealand’s South Island, is arguably the best place in the world to see albatrosses and petrels. And the endemic Hutton’s Shearwater, which only breeds in Kaikoura, will keep you entertained for those few minutes till the albatrosses hit. More Albatrosses, this time a White-capped Albatross !
214 
10,000 Birds
SEPTEMBER 9, 2014
For mankind to snatch away a species’ very existence is wrong on so many levels that I can’t begin to explain them. However, despite our best efforts to wipe them off the face of the earth, some of the more vulnerable species have managed to hang on. this species breeds. this species breeds.
253 
10,000 Birds
NOVEMBER 6, 2013
Anyone that has read my posts before knows I love Kaikoura and the amazing people at Albatross Encounter. This species is best seen at Kaikoura , but they do disperse after the breeding season, so I didn’t see any when I dropped by at Easter. Salvin’s Albatrosses were nice to add to my year list.
204 
10,000 Birds
JUNE 8, 2016
So here’s some Antipodean Albatrosses! I’ve always planned to do a post on this species and always been scared that I’ll probably get some of the pictures wrong. The taxonomy of the bigger albatrosses, known as great albatrosses, is tricky. The mighty Antipodean Albatross. Coming in to land.
100 
10,000 Birds
NOVEMBER 3, 2020
I’ve been fortunate to see two Penguin species in the wild (African and Galapagos) and have dreamed of seeing more–maybe even all!–especially The goal of Around the World For Penguins is simple: Describe the 18 species of penguin and their breeding grounds “from the perspective of a traveller.”
279 
10,000 Birds
SEPTEMBER 4, 2012
The section South Georgia Wildlife describes 65 species of birds, 20 species of sea mammals, nearly 60 species of insects, and more than 40 species of flowering and nonflowering plants. In addition to the photo below, of a Black-browed Albatross and its young, a full-page photo shows adult and juvenile birds in flight.
210 10,000 Birds
NOVEMBER 26, 2014
They are, I think, the most numerous species of seabird in the tropical Pacific I haven’t done a post on yet. Their name in Hawaiian is ewa ewa, literally “cacophony”, and another name for the species is wideawake tern, which is how they’ll leave you at first. If not, then certainly the loudest.
224 
10,000 Birds
SEPTEMBER 21, 2011
The species ranges widely across the Pacific, as its scientific name suggests, from the Revillagigedo Islands off Mexico to the Japanese Bonin Islands to New South Wales in Australia. In the air you can see the wedged tail that gives the species its name. I’ll do a post on this special little shearwater later on.
227 
10,000 Birds
OCTOBER 10, 2012
Buller’s Albatross ( Thalassarche bulleri ) and Cape Petrel ( Daption capense ) at Kaikoura. The focus of today is one of the guys above, but since I have already done a story on Buller’s Albatrosses before it is going to be about the other guy. This post is not about albatrosses!
182 
10,000 Birds
NOVEMBER 7, 2012
Wedge-tailed Shearwaters The commonest of the two shearwater species you can find on the island, this species has burrows all over the place. They are also one of the more vocal species on the island, braying like lost souls under the house we lived in. Laysan Albarosses Last but by no means least are the Laysan Albatrosses.
157 
10,000 Birds
APRIL 2, 2012
It was a Benguela Nino year, and pelagic seabirds were in super-abundance in the south eastern Atlantic, with the total of species by variety and number exceeding all expectations for the birders on the inaugural trip as we pitched and wallowed about in the rolling swells on our way out to the trawling grounds.
241 
10,000 Birds
APRIL 27, 2011
Last week I introduced the Great Frigatebird , one of five species of man-o-war bird. I got rather carried away showing all the plumages you can see around a breeding colony, which means I had to split my post on the species into two. They are capable of covering great distances, perhaps like an albatross.
215 
10,000 Birds
JUNE 9, 2021
You can’t say the same about migration: you can’t say that every book about birds is necessarily about migration, for the simple reason that only about 4,000 bird species migrate (with some 1,800 of those traveling long distances). (Well, purely physical attributes play a part, too: they’re pretty good looking.).
264 
10,000 Birds
MARCH 2, 2011
In particular the South Island destination of Kaikoura is world-renowned for the flocks of albatrosses and giant petrels floating right off the pelagic boat, and the ease of the trip makes it a must-visit for any visiting birder. The final large petrel species is another gadfly petrel, albeit a much larger one than the Cook’s Petrel.
212 
10,000 Birds
DECEMBER 11, 2016
Why else would I have chosen a nice breeding plumaged Magnolia Warbler as my feature image in December if not to lure you in?] Maybe they were lured by the promise of even more seabirds and albatrosses. Seabirds and albatrosses? This is a result of our natural history: We’re just not fooled and blinded by colours.
217 
10,000 Birds
MARCH 11, 2015
Corey asked that I didn’t post any albatrosses today, which suits me since I didn’t do a pelagic trip and thus didn’t see any. African Penguins, or Jackass Penguins as they are sometimes known, are one of those species of penguin you’ll find away from the frozen wastes of Antarctica. Boulders Beach.
178 
10,000 Birds
MARCH 29, 2012
If you’ve read my posts before you’d know I’ve written at length about the devastating effects of introduced mammals in New Zealand, and also of the ways that New Zealanders have been working to save their species from those same mammals. Spread the word and support the project if you can at Million Dollar Mouse !
171 10,000 Birds
AUGUST 20, 2014
That’s why I went for an albatross, because it wasn’t my BBOY, but it would at least tweak Corey. The scope is to give you the illusion you might be able to work out the species). My first view of this amazing species! Note bonus swift in background (no idea what species). Storm’s Stork.
234 
10,000 Birds
JULY 18, 2012
Others, like the petrels and some of the auks, will lay a single egg per breeding attempt. The investment placed in each clutch bur seabirds is so great that only one breeding attempt can be seen to completion each year. For the larger albatrosses and the frigatebirds it is common to take longer and have rest years between attempts.
210 
10,000 Birds
NOVEMBER 20, 2013
It is one of several species of Procellaria petrels found in New Zealand, and several more that are found in the southern hemisphere. The species is somewhat unusual in that it is one of the few procellariids that still breeds on the mainland of New Zealand.
157 
10,000 Birds
OCTOBER 30, 2013
I once worked with banders who used to use the ratio of the lengths of the primary projections (or some other voodoo like that) and an alchemical tome known as the Pyle Guide to separate some species. This spoke very clearly to me that people who claim to be able to separate these species in the field were either birding gods or delusional.
200 
10,000 Birds
JUNE 12, 2018
The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are home to some of the largest assemblages of breeding seabirds in the United States. These remote islands, some more than 1,000 miles from Honolulu, are home to huge globally-significant colonies of Laysan and Black-footed Albatross, among many others. They are also disease vectors.
140 
10,000 Birds
MARCH 6, 2018
About six-and-a-half years ago I had the privilege of watching a young Waved Albatross on the Galapagos island of Española learning how to fly. It’s not often that we have the opportunity to glimpse the home life of albatrosses, nor of any seabird species. Technology to the rescue!
127 10,000 Birds
JULY 7, 2015
But, I did take many photos, and used the book, in spurts during the trip and more closely afterward, to identify three seabird species, two expected (Sooty and Black-vented Shearwaters) and one a surprise. It does not include near-shore, coastal species, like Brown Pelican, Elegant Tern, and Harbor Seal.
162 10,000 Birds
SEPTEMBER 19, 2015
However, that doesn’t mean that the bird species in question is necessarily endangered. The same goes for some bird species commonly encountered by many an American and Canadian birder. Three of the main candidates are Waved Albatross, Peruvian Booby, and Inca Tern. A rare bird is one we don’t see very often.
185 
10,000 Birds
SEPTEMBER 8, 2023
An associated issue is that the Belize and Costa Rica guides share many of the same descriptions of species, written by Howell. Similarly, descriptions of species repeated across volumes do not lose their accuracy with each publication. Other species are splits and lumped and have had their names changed. Why are these issues?
246 
10,000 Birds
DECEMBER 27, 2013
My best bird of the year is based on the sighting rather than the species. Obviously my best bird of the year is going to come during this trip, what with several species of endemic pitta and broadbill possible, not to mention 8 species of hornbill and numerous babblers, storks, kingfishers, trogons and even the endemic Bornean Bristlehead.
180 
10,000 Birds
SEPTEMBER 6, 2016
At Sea With the Marine Birds of the Raincoast opens with the unexpected appearance of a Laysan Albatross. We are all suckers for an albatross, at least in the United States. The author, conservation biologist Caroline Fox, is observing the albatross’s shadow to the side of the boat. Do I need to say anything more?
100 10,000 Birds
NOVEMBER 4, 2014
to the ongoing conservation of breeding Lesser Flamingos at Kimberley’s Kamfers Dam to the Albatross Task Force, which works with fishermen to find solutions to seabird bycatch (birds caught in fishermen’s nets). We observed far fewer Lesser Flamingos, a near-threatened species. And then there were the Flamingos.
255 10,000 Birds
JANUARY 3, 2017
Greater Adjutants are huge birds that were once widespread across much of Southeast Asia; today there are two small breeding populations in India and Cambodia. Finally, deciding that a duck that required 250 acres of land to breed probably did not welcome intruders, we tiptoed out of the swamp. 3) Greater Adjutant. 6) Garganey.
167 
10,000 Birds
MAY 3, 2016
In addition to splits, selected rare visitors have been added (Lesser Sand-Plover, Zenaida Dove, Red-vented Bulbul and African Collared-Dove are some of the species new to the East book, Streaked Shearwater, Stonechat, Red-flanked Bluetail and Japanese White-eye are some of the West adds), and selected exotics.
189 
10,000 Birds
SEPTEMBER 7, 2011
(Creative Commons Attribution Share-alike) Dunedin You don’t have to go very far to see spectacular seabirds in this southern city, the adjoining Otago Peninsula is home to the only mainland colony of albatrosses in the world. Image by Dunedin NZ, Creative Commons.
157 10,000 Birds
MARCH 1, 2012
Howell continues his tradition of giving clarity to what most birders find intimidating with Petrels, Albatrosses & Storm-Petrels of North America: A Photographic Guide , just published by Princeton University Press. My photo above of Galapagos Albatross (also known as Waved Albatross) shows the nostril tubes on the side of the bill. (In
182 10,000 Birds
NOVEMBER 10, 2011
And the famous Wandering Albatross has the largest wingspan of any living bird, nearly 12 feet across in the largest individuals. Four families are often recognized: storm-petrels, albatrosses, shearwaters and petrels , and diving-petrels. And species-level taxonomy of the tubenoses remains a great frontier for study and discovery.
240 
10,000 Birds
JUNE 25, 2022
Even so, in the short term, it can be hard to accept that hundreds of species are close to being extinguished from this irreplaceble tapestry of life, that hundreds more are headed for the same eventual abysmal stop. We would see how species that used to be common, even abundant, became remnants of their former, robust populations.
279 
10,000 Birds
MARCH 14, 2022
Finally in 1799, the first visitors on this volcanic land were a group of French seal hunters who were after the fur seals that can be found hauled out on the beaches for fur and oil, which almost wiped out the local population of the species. About half of all breeding Wandering Albatross nest on the Prince Edward Islands.
264 
10,000 Birds
OCTOBER 19, 2011
Although the islands are a cramped home to 18 species of seabird, the dominant and most charismatic of these are the two species of albatross, the Black-footed and Laysan Albatrosses. There was one young Black-footed Albatross that was apparently not planning on going quietly into the dark night, however.
238 
10,000 Birds
MARCH 5, 2024
These lands support countless birds, either year-round, as migratory stopovers, or as breeding grounds. BLM land is particularly important for conservation of the Greater Sage-Grouse and other sageland species. For example, most of the world’s Black-footed and Laysan Albatross and Ashy Storm-Petrel breed on these islands.
264
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