A Waved Albatross flies 2000 km south and succumbs

Far outside its normal range: a dead Waved Albatross from central Chile, photograph by Jorge Viscarra

What seems to be the most southerly record for a Waved Albatross Phoebastria irrorata (Critically Endangered) is of a bird found dead on the coast of Chile at 36.7°S on the Isla de lo Reyes Rocuant Beach, Bahía de Concepción in the Biobío Region of Chile by Jorge Viscarra on 08 August 2026, as reported on eBird.

Waved Albatrosses breed on the equator in The Galapagos (with a few pairs on La Plata Island).  Their normal at-sea range is to the coastal waters of Ecuador and Peru, the “extreme north of Chile” and occasionally northwards to off Colombia and Panama.  A record from close to the city of Concepción in central Chile is thus well outside the species’ normal range, noting that the maritime boundary between Peru and Chile is at 18.3°S, some 2000 km north of the Concepción bird, that was found 4500 km from its most likely breeding locality of Española Island in The Galapagos.

Information from the Facebook page Pelagics. Seabirds birding worldwide posted by Alvaro Jaramillo.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 10 August 2026