The White-capped Albatross Thalassarche steadi breeding on Diego Ramírez.  a. Brooding its chick (with a Grey-headed Albatross T. chrysostoma chick in the foreground. B. Chick in the early post-guard period.
Photographs by Cristóbal Anguita (left) and Carlos Garcés Letelier (right)

Cristián Suazo (Department of Animal Ecology & Systematics, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany) and colleagues have published open access in the journal Polar Biology on a pair of breeding White-capped Albatrosses Thalassarche steadi that successfully fledged their chick on the Diego Ramírez Islands,  The island group was designated as a Marine Protected Area in 2019.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Albatrosses are renowned for their high philopatry, which has been proposed as a major barrier to their dispersal and hybridization with other albatross species.  Except for shy-type albatross species from New Zealand, examples of colonization of new breeding sites and interbreeding with closely related species are rare.  During the austral summer of 2022, while conducting land-based monitoring of resident Black-browed (Thalassarche melanophris) and Grey-headed (T. chrysostoma) albatross populations on the Diego Ramírez Islands, Chile (56 S), we documented the first (and southernmost) breeding record of a nesting pair of White-capped Albatross (T. steadi), a species endemic to the Auckland Islands, New Zealand (~ 7000 km away).  The species identity was confirmed through molecular analysis.  This discovery underscores the importance of Diego Ramírez and its surrounding waters as a hotspot for global albatross conservation.”

The known breeding distribution of the White-capped Albatross in the Southern Ocean - from the publication

Reference:

Suazo, C., Anguita, C., Garcés Letelier, C. Martínez, A.·& Quillfeldt, P. 2024.  The white‑capped albatross: a new breeding record for the Diego Ramírez Islands, Chile.  Polar Biology doi.org/10.1007/s00300-024-03269-2.

10 June 2024

A Peruvian Diving Petrel chick on Pajaros Uno Island, photograph from Island Conservation

Peruvian Diving Petrels Pelecanoides garnotii have returned to breed on Chile’s Pajaros Uno Island following the eradication of Black Rats Rattus rattus in 2020, confirmed as successful two years later (click here).  Two pairs of have been found breeding this year on the 70-ha island”.  “The audio recordings were played on a specialised solar-powered sound system and during the night when the sea was calm the sounds could be heard up to 300 metres away from the island.”

Pajaros Uno Island, photograph from Island Conservation

The island also supports breeding populations of Peruvian Boobies Sula variegata, Kelp Gulls Larus dominicanus and Humboldt Penguins Spheniscus humboldti.

A Peruvian Diving Petrel at sea, photograph by Island Conservation

The successful eradication effort was undertaken by the Chilean Ministry of the Environment and the environmental NGO Island Conservation.

07 June 2024

Black 24J off Port MacDonnell, South Australia, 5 May 2024, photograph by Hannah Fairbairn

On 5 May 2024 Hannah Fairbairn photographed a great albatross Diomedea spp. at sea while seabird watching on a “pelagic trip” aboard the Jaymar Star of Port MacDonnell Fishing Charters operating out of Port MacDonnell, South Australia to the continental shelf break approximately 30 km offshore, as reported on the Port MacDonnell Seabirds and Pelagics - South Australia Facebook Page.  The bird carried a metal band on its right leg and plastic colour band black 24J on its left.  Read a trip report of the outing here.

Close-up of the Black 24J and metal bands, photograph by Hannah Fairbairn

White lettering on black colour bands is recorded by the New Zealand National Bird Banding Scheme as being used on the Gibson’s subspecies of the Antipodean Albatross D. antipodensis gibsoni on Adams Island in the Auckland Islands group, where Black 24J was banded as a chick on 11 December 2022 by well-known albatross researchers, Graeme Elliott and Kath Walker.  The sighting is apparently the first time the bird has been reported since its banding.

Profile view of Black 24J, photograph by Hannah Fairbairn

In response to a query by ACAP Latest News, Kath writes:

“The photo Hannah took of Black-24J at just over two years old is super interesting as we so rarely see birds of that age and haven’t known the timing of the moult of their juvenile brown feathers.  It looks like they must start moulting their dark brown plumage only 6-12 months after they fledge, when they are 16–22 months old.

We’d assumed this to be the case because the longest time we’ve managed to retain satellite transmitters taped onto the back feathers of juvenile Gibson’s Albatrosses just before they fledge is 16 months (i.e. all the juveniles we tracked had moulted out their original back feathers by 25 months of age).

When Graeme and I banded Black-24J it still had quite a lot of down on its neck and belly so we were unsure whether it was a male or a female. However, at 25 months it already looks so white on the back in the photos we think it’s more likely it is a male.”

 
Another view of Black 24J, with a Shy Albatross Thalassarche cauta in front, photograph by Hannah Fairbairn

 Identification of the five taxa of great albatrosses in the “Wandering Group” at sea in regions where more than one taxon is likely to occur will always be difficult, given the subtle differences in appearance, made harder by gender and age changes in plumage.  Thus, confirming an ID made at sea by the presence of leg bands that have been photographed is both useful for learning how to identify the taxa and to add to knowledge of their at-sea distributions.

With thanks to Hannah Fairbairn and Kath Walker ONZM.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 06 June 2024

Tracks of foraging trips by Light-mantled Albatrosses (LMA) and Sooty Albatrosses (SA) during incubation from multiple colonies across their breeding range. Study colonies indicated by red diamonds.  From the publication

Lily Bentley (Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, UK) and colleagues have published open access in the Journal of Biogeography on the at-sea distributions of Sooty Phoebetria fusca and Light-mantled P. palpebrate Albatrosses.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Aim:  Competition is often proposed to drive niche segregation along multiple axes in speciose communities. Understanding spatial partitioning of foraging areas is particularly important in species that are constrained to a central place. We present a natural experiment examining variation in habitat preferences of congeneric Southern Ocean predators in sympatry and allopatry. Our aim was to ascertain consistency of habitat preferences within species, and to test whether preferences changed in the presence of the congener.

Location:  Southern Hemisphere.

Taxon:  Multiple colonies of both species within the genus Phoebetria (sooty albatrosses).

Methods: The two Phoebetria albatrosses breed on islands located from ~37–55°S – sooty albatrosses (P. fusca) in the north and light-mantled albatrosses (P. palpebrata) in the south – with sympatric overlap at locations ~46–49°S. We analysed GPS and PTT tracks from 87 individuals and multiple remotely sensed environmental variables using GAMs, to determine and compare the key factors influencing habitat preference for each species at each breeding colony.

Results:  While foraging habitat preferences are consistent in light-mantled albatrosses, there is divergence of preferences in sooty albatrosses depending on whether they are in sympatry with their congener or in allopatry.

Main Conclusions:  This study represents the most comprehensive work on this genus  to date and highlights how habitat preferences and behavioural plasticity may influence species distributions under different competitive conditions.”

Reference:

Bentley, L.K., Phillips, R.A., Carpenter-Kling, T., Crawford, R.J.M., Cuthbert, R.J., Delord, K., Dilley, B.J., Makhado, A.B., Miller, P.L, Oppel, S., Pistorius, P., Ryan, P.G., Schoombie, S., Weimerskirch, H. & Manica, A. 2024.  Habitat preferences of Phoebetria albatrosses in sympatry and allopatry.  Journal of Biogeography DOI: 10.1111/jbi.14966.

05 June 2024