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Altruism, Albatrosses, and Vicious Young Men

10,000 Birds

Ka’ena Point is also a breeding ground for the Federally protected Laysan albatross, where 45 nests were being carefully monitored by the non-profit Pacific Rim Conservation. The oldest Laysan albatross was last seen raising a chick on Midway Atoll in 2016, at age 66. They are docile and devoted parents who will not leave their nests.

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Identify My Albatross!

10,000 Birds

There was a time when albatross taxonomy was quite simple. Actually, I lie, albatross taxonomy has always been a mess, but there was a period of relative calm, from the sixties to the ninties, when there were about 12 species in two genera. This is unambiguously an albatross. Okay, so this is a wandering albatross of some kind.

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Buller’s Albatrosses

10,000 Birds

It’s winter down here for sure now, and winter in Kaikoura , on the coast of South Island north of Christchurch, means one thing, albatrosses! I took a lot of photos but today I’ll just be sharing the ones of the Buller’s Albatross , Thalassarche bulleri , known here as the Buller’s Mollymawk.

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Laysan Albatrosses

10,000 Birds

While I often tease Corey about how many albatrosses we have down here in New Zealand, the fact is that the United States has three species of Albatross that breed within its boundaries, albeit one of them only very rarely, and visit the western shores of North America. Laysan Albatross, Phoebastria immutabilis Some young adults.

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Antipodean Albatrosses

10,000 Birds

So here’s some Antipodean Albatrosses! The taxonomy of the bigger albatrosses, known as great albatrosses, is tricky. What were three species, Royal Albatross, Wandering Albatross and Amsterdam Albatross , are now seven. The mighty Antipodean Albatross. This is a true Wandering Albatross.

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The Dance of the Albatross

10,000 Birds

You’ll need to find yourself an albatross. Gratuitous Black-browed Albatross photo ( Thalassarche melanophrys ) not engaging in dancing Albatrosses are the longest lived of an already long lived order of birds, the petrels, and are in fact among the longest lived of all birds. So what is going on?

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The Moby Dick of Albatross

10,000 Birds

Midway Atoll has hundreds of thousands of Laysan Albatross …it is the biggest nesting colony of Laysan Albatross in the world. During my legendary tenure there, I saw a lot of albatross chicks. But there is one that I remember better than most…Moby Dick, The Great White Albatross Chick.