The first Black-footed Albatross chick successfully reared by translocated parents begs for a meal on the Hawaiian island of Oahu

With sea-level rise and storm water surges threatening the albatrosses of Hawaii’s low-lying atolls, comes the news that a translocation project run by the environmental NGO Pacific Rim Conservation  has led to Black-footed Albatrosses Phoebastria nigripes breeding on Oahu in the 2023/24 season, as revealed last week on Facebook.  This represents a new breeding locality for this ACAP-listed and Near Threatened species.

 
Translocated Black-footed Albatross V666 broods its chick in the James Campbell National Wildlife Reserve on Oahu

“We are thrilled to announce a huge milestone - in 2024, the first wild Ka'upu (Black-footed albatross) chick fledged from the Main Hawaiian Islands in over 400 years!

The ka'upu chick, E999, raised by a pair of translocated ka'upu, V434 and V666, marks a huge success for seabird conservation. Both V434 and V666 were translocated as chicks from Midway Atoll NWR to James Campbell NWR, where they were hand-fed fish slurry by PRC’s Aviculturist Robby Kohley and a specially trained team of staff, interns, and volunteers. After new breeding colonies of vulnerable seabird species that are safe from sea-level rise. By building mammalian exclusion fences, removing invasive predators, and socially attracting and/or translocating birds into these protected areas, we can create safe, higher elevation refugia for ground nesting seabirds.”

 
Translocated V666 broods its chick, photographs from Pacific Rim Conservation

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 26 May 2025

 Sooty Albatross in flight, photograph by Kirk Zufelt

Yves Cherel (Centre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, Villiers-en-Bois, France) and colleagues have published open access in the journal Endangered Species Research on the trophic ecology of Sooty Phoebetria fusca and Light-mantled P. palpebrata Albatrosses.

Light-mantled Albatross, photograph by Kirk Zufelt

The paper’s abstract follows:

“The trophic ecology of the Endangered sooty albatross (SA, 4 populations) was investigated using the concept of isotopic niche as a proxy of the trophic niche, and its isotopic metrics were compared with those of the congeneric Near Threatened light-mantled sooty albatross (LMSA, 4 populations). Three features differentiated SA from LMSA. (1) Feather δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N values of chicks and breeding adults were overall higher in SA than LMSA. This translates to more northern foraging grounds in the former than the latter species, with SA favouring warmer subtropical waters and LMSA colder waters of the Southern Ocean where they feed in part on low trophic level prey (likely Antarctic krill) at high latitudes. (2) Interestingly, Som the Atlantic (Gough Island) differentiate from SA of the Indian Ocean (Marion, Crozet and Amsterdam Islands) by adult birds foraging primarily within the Southern Ocean in a similar way as LMSA from South Georgia, Marion, Crozet and Kerguelen Islands. (3) Calculations of the trophic niche width at the population and individual levels showed that SA from the Indian Ocean are specialist populations, while Gough Island SA and the 4 LMSA populations are generalist populations that include both generalist and specialist individuals. Consequently, both the preferential use of warm waters and the narrow trophic niche width of SA from the southern Indian Ocean imply a higher risk for SA than LMSA of being killed by subtropical tuna longline fisheries and being negatively impacted by environmental changes. Conversely, the preferential use of cold waters together with a large trophic niche width of SA from Gough Island suggest fewer negative interactions with direct and indirect human activities.”

Reference:

Cherel, Y., Jaeger, A., Carravieri, A., Jaquemet, S., Phillips, R.A., Wanless, R.M. & Richard, P. 2025.  Trophic ecology of sooty albatross, segregating mechanisms from the congeneric light-mantled sooty albatross, and conservation implications.  Endangered Species Research 57:45-57.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 23 May 2025

 
Balearic Shearwater at sea

Patrick Lewin (Department of Biology, University of Oxford, United Kingdom) and colleagues have published open access in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on shifts in migratory patterns by ACAP-listed and Critically Endangered Balearic Shearwaters Puffinus mauretanicus.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“How individual animals respond to climate change is key to whether populations will persist or go extinct.  Yet, few studies investigate how changes in individual behavior underpin these population-level phenomena. Shifts in the distributions of migratory animals can occur through adaptation in migratory behaviors, but there is little understanding of how selection and plasticity contribute to population range shift.  Here, we use long-term geolocator tracking of Balearic shearwaters (Puffinus mauretanicus) to investigate how year-to-year changes in individual birds’ migrations underpin a range shift in the post-breeding migration.  We demonstrate a northward shift in the post-breeding range and show that this is brought about by individual plasticity in migratory destination, with individuals migrating further north in response to changes in sea-surface temperature.  Furthermore, we find that when individuals migrate further, they return faster, perhaps minimizing delays in return to the breeding area.   Birds apparently judge the increased distance that they will need to migrate via memory of the migration route, suggesting that spatial cognitive mechanisms may contribute to this plasticity and the resulting range shift.  Our study exemplifies the role that individual behavior plays in populations’ responses to environmental change and highlights some of the behavioral mechanisms that might be key to understanding and predicting species persistence in response to climate change.”

Reference:

Lewin, P.J., Wynn, J., Arcos, J. M., Austin, R.E., Blagrove, J., Bond, S., Carrasco, G., Delord K., Fisher-Reeves, L., Garcia, D., Gillies, N., Guilford, T., Hawkins, I., Jaggers, P., Kirk, C., Louzao, M., Maurice, L., Mcminn, M., Micol, T., Morford, J., Morgan, G., Moss, J., Miquel Riera, E., Rodriguez, A., Siddiqi-Davies, K., Weimerskirch, H., Wynn, R.B. & Padget, O. 2024.  Climate change drives migratory range shift via individual plasticity in shearwaters.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 121(6), e2312438121.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 22 May 2025

Gibson’s Antipodean Albatross red 51K, photograph by David Harper

On 10 May 2025 off the shelf break from Port MacDonnell, South Australia, David Harper photographed an Antipodean Albatross Diomedea antipodensis with leg band red 51K, as reported on the Seabirds and Pelagics Australia Facebook page.

Taking flight. Gibson’s Antipodean Albatross red 51K, photograph by David Harper

New Zealand albatross researcher Kath Walker ONZM commented on the same page.

"It’s a young adult female Gibson’s wandering albatross Diomedea antipodensis gibsoni, which Graeme [Elliott] and I banded on 7 January 2024 when she nested for the first time in our study area on Adams Island in the Auckland Island group.  She would have been at least 10 years old at the time, and probably more like 12 or 15 years old as her partner was a 24-year-old, recently widowed male, and they normally choose birds roughly their own age.”

Gibson’s Antipodean Albatross red 51K breeding on Adams Island, photograph by Kath Walker

“I’ve attached a photo of her I took when we banded her – she’d just made all the finishing touches to her nest which is why her bill is so dirty, and her breast too – 2024 was a wet season and nests were muddy.  The male does the basics in getting a nest ready but when the females arrive all ready to lay, they frantically do all the finishing touches to make ‘nice”!  The red dot above her bill is temporary stock marker we put on birds once they’ve laid to remind us we’ve read her band and doesn’t need to be approached closely again.

Their nesting attempt in 2024 failed when their big feathered chick died (it was a very poor breeding season – only 46% in the SA [study area] were successful).

Having such a late failure left the pair in too poor a condition to try again this year, so when you saw Red-51K, she was on a breeding sabbatical to regain condition.  The shelf break off south Australia is a favourite – presumably rich- place for Gibson’s albatross to forage.

Read about two other colour-banded Gibson's Antipodean Albatrosses photographed at sea here and here.

Southern Buller’s Albatross white A11, photographs by Ian Melbourne

On 17 May 2025, as posted on the same Facebook page, Ian Melbourne photographed a Buller's Albatross Thalassarche bulleri with a back-mounted tracker, along with leg bands white A11 left  and metal right off Eaglehawk Neck, Tasmania.  According to a comment the bird was a Southern Buller’s Albatross of the nominate subspecies from the Snares Islands.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 21 May 2025