---
title: "New Zealand’s World Albatross Day banner is photographed with Buller’s Albatrosses on the Snares Islands"
---

# New Zealand’s World Albatross Day banner is photographed with Buller’s Albatrosses on the Snares Islands

![Albatross Day banner at The Snares Mar 2020](https://acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Posters_Books/Albatross_Day_banner_at_The_Snares_Mar_2020.jpg) 

 *A 'WAD2020' banner on The Snares with Buller's Albatrosses.  From left: David Thompson, Paul Sagar and David Sagar (in front)*

 The now well-travelled [World Albatross Day](https://www.acap.aq/en/world-albatross-day/introduction-to-world-albatross-day) banner made by Graham Parker and Kalinka Rexer-Huber of the environmental consultancy [Parker Conservation](http://www.parkerconservation.co.nz/) made it to New Zealand’s sub-Antarctic [Snares Islands](https://www.acap.aq/en/news/news-archive/60-2013-news-archive/1336-acap-breeding-sites-no-15-snares-islands-new-zealand-home-of-buller-s-and-salvin-s-albatrosses?highlight=WyJzbmFyZXMiLCJubyIsIidubyJd) last month.

 Following the banner’s return with Graham and Kalinka from its successful outing to the [Auckland Islands](https://www.acap.aq/en/latest-news/3542-new-zealand-s-well-travelled-world-albatross-day-banner-gets-to-the-sub-antarctic-auckland-islands), David Sagar ([DOC](https://www.doc.govt.nz)), [Paul Sagar](https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Paul_Sagar4) ([NIWA](https://niwa.co.nz/)) and David Thompson ([NIWA](https://niwa.co.nz/)) displayed it at one of the long-established study colonies of globally [Near Threatened](http://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/bullers-albatross-thalassarche-bulleri) and nationally [Naturally Uncommon](http://nzbirdsonline.org.nz/species/bullers-mollymawk) Southern Buller's Albatrosses *Thalassarche b. bulleri* on North East Island in the Snares group.

 ‘WAD2020’ banners have now been displayed on most of New Zealand’s sub-Antarctic islands, as well as on [Three Kings Islands](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manawat%C4%81whi_/_Three_Kings_Islands) situated north of New Zealand where the Northern Buller’s Albatross *T. b. platei*has a small breeding population (and where the same banner made a quick visit in February).

 Paul Sagar writes to *ACAP Latest News*: “In addition to displaying the banner, a highlight of the trip was finding a 48-year old Southern Buller's Albatross that had been banded as a chick in 1972 by Don Horning.  The bird was occupying an empty nest, the same one that it has occupied for the last 25 or so years that I have been recapturing it.  It was last on an egg in March 2019.  The bird was originally banded on a nest in the same area where it now itself breeds.  Measurements of it that I took in the 1990s indicate that it is a female.”

 An even older Southern Buller’s recaptured by Paul on The Snares back in 1993 was estimated as 57 years old ([click here](https://www.acap.aq/en/news/news-archive/60-2013-news-archive/1301-a-buller-s-albatross-banded-by-pioneer-researcher-lance-richdale-reached-an-estimated-age-of-57-years?highlight=WyJzbmFyZXMiLCJubyIsIidubyJd)).

 ![Bullers Albatross Paul Sagar Shary Page Weckwerth](https://acap.aq/images/WAD/Bullers_Albatross_Paul_Sagar_Shary_Page_Weckwerth.jpg)

 *Buller's Albatross, artwork for [Artists & Biologists Unite for Nature](https://www.facebook.com/groups/ABUN4Nature/) by Shary Page Weckwerth from a photograph by Paul Sagar*

 Paul has also offered his personal support for WAD2020: “Albatrosses nest on some of the most remote islands of the world and travel the High Seas far from land.  Yet they still suffer from the effects of a range of human activities that threaten their existence.  A World Albatross Day is an excellent way to raise awareness of the plight of these iconic seabirds.” .

 With thanks to Shary Page Weckwerth (ABUN wildlife artist), Graham Parker ([Parker Conservation](http://www.parkerconservation.co.nz/)) and Paul Sagar ( retired, Marine Ecology Group, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research; NIWA).

 *John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 06 April 2020*