Where is it now?  Rua, the Black Petrel’s journey to Australia as of 02 August 2026

ACAP Latest News regularly reports on the fortunes of the ACAP-listed and globally Vulnerable Black Petrel Procellaria parkinsoni that only breeds on New Zealand’s Little Barrier and Great Barrier Islands.  Ongoing research by Wildlife Management International shows that fledglings usually head eastwards to waters off Pacific South America, to return some years later to recruit as breeding birds.  The low level of return of banded juveniles is a serious cause of concern.

Overly fanciful?  Rua taking it easy on Australia’s Gold Coast

But not every Black Petrel fledgling “gets the message” and one satellite-tracked bird, named Rua, has instead headed west to the waters off Queensland, Australia, having according to WMI’s Managing Director, Biz Bell, “a very relaxing time.”  See its track here.

Overall, the latest batch of tracked fledglings are currently a bit more spread out in the southern Pacific as Biz reports: “This season, chicks have ranged much further north than ever recorded before.  Some are already foraging off Ecuador and around the Galapagos Islands; others are working their way up and down the Ecuadorian and Peruvian coasts.  A few are still out in the open Pacific, cruising at roughly the same latitude as Guatemala, somewhere between Hawaii and the Pitcairn Island group.”

You can follow the tracked birds, including the errant Rua, here.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels 04 August 2026

Observation effort and environmental context during the Flock to Marion 2025 expedition. (Top) Overview of eBird contributions, including total sightings, number of checklists, number of taxa after harmonisation, number of observers, proportion of complete checklists, median checklist duration (with 10th and 90th quantiles) and proportion of checklists with counts. (Middle) Ship track overlaid on concurrent oceanographic conditions: Sea-surface temperature, surface current speed and chlorophyll-a concentration averaged over the period 24–30 January 2025. The grey line shows the full ship track, while overlapping yellow segments indicate periods of active observation. (Bottom) Temporal pattern of checklist submission effort (number of active checklists per 5-min interval) showing a strong diurnal pattern (from the publication)

Raphaël Nussbaumer (Swiss Ornithological Institute, Sempach, Switzerland) and colleagues have published in the open access journal Diversity and Distributions on using seabird lists from the mass-participation Flock to Marion AGAIN! 2025 voyage in the southern Indian Ocean to infer species distributions at sea.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Aim

Citizen-science observations are increasingly used to infer species distributions at sea, yet the extent to which observer behaviour and heterogeneous detectability may bias inferences from such pelagic seabird observations, and how explicitly accounting for these processes affects inferred distributional patterns, remains poorly understood.

Location

Southwest Indian Ocean, from mainland South Africa to the Prince Edward Islands.

Methods

We analysed 2563 eBird checklists submitted by 212 observers during a seven-day oceanic cruise (24–31 January 2025) traversing a broad latitudinal gradient (~30° S to ~47° S) spanning warm subtropical waters to sub-Antarctic conditions. This unusually dense, transect-based dataset allowed us to quantify selective reporting, effort-driven temporal bias, and observer- and species-specific detection bias associated with checklist type and observer engagement. We then applied a novel multispecies, transect-based occupancy model to estimate seabird occurrence for 39 species while explicitly accounting for species-, observer- and effort-dependent detection probability. Bias-corrected occupancy patterns were compared with independent tracking-based space-use estimates for 10 species.

Results

Incomplete and short-duration checklists inflated the apparent importance of rare, charismatic species. Observer effort was structured in time, peaking at dawn and during days of high species novelty. Detection probability varied markedly among species and observers, increased with species prevalence and body mass, and rose non-linearly with observation duration, reaching a plateau after approximately 1 h. Bias-corrected occupancy estimates revealed clear community turnover along the transect. Inferred spatial occurrence patterns were strongly correlated with independent tracking-based space-use estimates.

Main Conclusions

Pelagic citizen-science data can yield ecologically realistic distributional inferences when observer bias and detectability are explicitly modelled. Large cruise-based birding events, combined with occupancy modelling, represent a powerful and scalable complement to tracking and structured surveys for studying seabird biogeography across oceanic gradients.”

Reference:

Nussbaumer, R., Kéry, M., Schrimpf, M. & Lee, A.T.K. 2026.  Quantifying bias and detectability in pelagic seabird citizen science: insights from a mass-participation cruise-based dataset.  Diversity and Distributions 32, No. 7: e70243.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels 03 August 2026

Antipodean Albatrosses on Antipodes Island, photograph by Edin Whitehead from the report’s title page

Kalinka Rexer-Huber (Parker Conservation) and colleagues have submitted their final report on field work with globally Endangered  Antipodean Albatross Diomedea a. antipodensis and globally Vulnerable White-chinned Petrels Procellaria aequinoctialis on Antipodes Island for the 2025/26 breeding season to the Conservation Services Programme of New Zealand’s Department of Conservation.

The report’s Executive Summary follows:

The Antipodean wandering albatross Diomedea antipodensis antipodensis has been in decline since a population crash in 2005–07. Declining numbers appear to have been largely driven by high female mortality, but low chick production—with fewer birds breeding and reduced breeding success—has compounded the problem.  To tease out the causes of falling numbers of Antipodean wandering albatrosses and identify the effectiveness of potential solutions, research includes an annual visit to the breeding grounds on Antipodes Island.  Alongside the albatross research, we conduct a mark-recapture study for white-chinned petrels.  This report describes the results of the annual field programme in the 2025/26 breeding season for both Antipodean albatrosses and white-chinned petrels.

Antipodean wandering albatross. The core annual study involves mark-recapture in an intensively monitored study area and census of the annual count areas.  This season’s field programme allowed updates to the trend in nesting population size, survival, productivity and recruitment.  There are some signs that rates of decline are slowing; for example, the population of breeding pairs was declining at -4.7% per annum (2008–2013), which has slowed to a -3.3% decline in the last decade 2015–2024. Since 2020, female survival has stabilised at levels approaching male survival rates. Female survival has reached 90.7% (most recent 4-year average) compared to that for males (93.4%), but remains lower than females’ pre-crash average of 95.9%.

Breeding success in 2025 was 62%. The average nesting success remains 63% since the 2006 crash, notably lower than the average pre-crash nesting success of 74%. The number of chicks produced (47 fledglings in the last cohort) remains small, even in years with good breeding success, since numbers nesting remain low. Recruitment now draws from the (much smaller) cohorts produced since the crash, so an increase in the size of the breeding population is unlikely in the near future.

To better understand fine-scale behaviours around fishing vessels, and albatross flight characteristics around potential offshore wind farms, GPS tracking devices were deployed on 43 adult Antipodean wandering albatross Jan–Feb 2026.

There is so far no evidence of the sustained improvement in Antipodean wandering albatross demography required for the population to recover, with tentative improvements recorded here merely slowing the decline. Recommendations include ongoing mark-recapture monitoring of demographic and population-size trends, and research into causes of declines. More-targeted ongoing engagement with fishers is needed to achieve better bycatch mitigation in line with ACAP best practice.

White-chinned petrel. A mark-recapture study to estimate vital rates, survival in particular, was established in the 2022–23 season. Substantial effort to grow the mark-recapture study this year means there are now 484 banded white-chinned petrels in 302 marked burrows in the two study areas. Eleven white-chinned petrels carried very-high-resolution devices for upTefere to 25 days, providing data suitable for detailed analysis of behaviours around fishing vessels. 

For accurate, precise white-chinned petrel survival estimates we recommend at least two more years of recaptures at existing marked burrows, to build on the three years of resighting data obtained to date. To monitor population size over time, we recommend establishing six 25m x 25m blocks to record occupied burrow numbers annually.

Finally, we estimate the size of the mixed colony of white-capped and black-browed albatrosses on Bollons Island.

Reference:

Rexer-Huber, K., Darby, J., Walker, K. & Elliott, G. 2026.  Antipodean wandering albatrosses and white-chinned petrels 2026.  Wellington: Conservation Services Programme, Department of Conservation.  28 pp.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels 31 July 2026

Researchers on The Snares, photograph by Graham Parker from the report’s title page

Paul Sagar (Parker Conservation) and colleagues have submitted their final report on field work conducted in 2026 on Near Threatened southern Buller’s Albatrosses Thalassarche b. bulleri at the Snares Island group to the Conservation Services Programme of New Zealand’s Department of Conservation.

The report’s Executive Summary follows:

“This report presents the results of demographic studies of southern Buller’s albatrosses Thalassarche bulleri bulleri breeding at Tini Heke | The Snares from 26 February to 22 March 2026.  A whole-island count of the numbers of breeding pairs on North East Island and Broughton Island was attempted.  This was largely successful, as ~78.5% of the Snares population was counted (South West Promontory and Alert Stack could not be fully counted).  A total of 6,041 occupied nests was estimated in counted areas on North East Island.  A comparison of the estimates from comparable areas showed a decline from 5,812 pairs in 2014 to 5,296 in 2026, a decrease of 9% over the 12 years.  The estimated number of breeding pairs on Broughton Island was 680, similar to the 621 pairs estimated in 2019.  When accounting for unsurveyed areas and applying a correction for vantage-point counts, the Snares southern Buller’s albatross population was estimated at 8,194 breeding pairs in March 2026.

Demographic studies at the three study colonies on North East Island have been undertaken annually 1992–2026, with the exceptions of 2018 and 2021. Estimates of the numbers of breeding pairs in 2026, made by recording the contents of each nest mound, increased in all three study colonies compared to 2024, but numbers remain below the levels recorded 2010–2023.  Assuming that the three study colonies are representative of changes across North East Island as a whole, the Buller’s albatrosses breeding population probably peaked in 2005–2006 and has since undergone marked annual variations, with a general decrease since 2010.  To increase coverage, a new study area was established at South Punui, bringing the annually-monitored population to 3.6% of the whole.

A total of 422 birds that had been banded previously in the study colonies as breeding adults of unknown age were recaptured. A further 56 breeding birds were banded in the study colonies, presumed to be first-time breeders.  The estimate of adult survival in 2025 was 0.85, one of the lowest recorded during the 34 years of this study.  During 1992–2004 all chicks that survived to near-fledging in the study colonies were banded and their survival to return to the study colonies in subsequent years has been monitored.  This year, 128 of these birds were recaptured, with 7 birds from cohorts banded in 1998 and 2004 recorded as breeding for the first time.  This highlights the long-term monitoring required to obtain reliable estimates of survival of known-age birds across life cycle stages.  In addition, five birds banded as near-fledging chicks in the study colonies in Sep 2013 and 2014 were recorded breeding for the first time. The process of fitting metal-banded birds with alphanumeric darvic bands was continued (darvics were fitted on 346 newly banded or recaptured birds).

Furthermore, tracking devices for high-resolution insights into foraging behaviour and flight characteristics were fitted on 28 Buller’s albatrosses.  Seven were also paired with TDRs to record sub-surface behaviour.  Finally, nest cameras to record data on breeding timing, productivity and nest survival rates were maintained, with 11 nest cameras recording for a further year.

Key recommendations are to extend the area covered by annual counts (including the area from the hut to the tip of the North Promontory) for more-precise trend estimates; and to record more resightings of banded birds to maximise the quality of key demographic parameter estimates by allowing for longer trips going forward.

Reference:

Sagar, P., Parker, G., Waipoua, T. & Rexer-Huber, K. 2026.  Population studies of southern Buller’s albatrosses at Tini Heke | The Snares.  Wellington: Conservation Services Programme, Department of Conservation.  26 pp.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 30 July 2026