Bullers Albatross

[ledzep]

This Bullers Mollymark seen off Stewart island has an orange stripe running down the side of its face. Is this common?

Bullers orange stripe.jpg (49.05 KiB) Viewed 3481 times

Most of them have a distinct grey line, but not coloured, as below.

Bullers no stripe.jpg (49.28 KiB) Viewed 3481 times

[Brent Stephenson]

Hi Duncan,

Sounds like a great trip to Stewart Island. The yellow stripe is actually present on all Buller's albs - it is part of the gape - and infact all species of tube-nose have it (I think). However, in most of the smaller Thalassarche albs it is brightly coloured and therefore much more obvious. However, you only see it when the bird is actively feeding or has its bill wide open, and they seem to be able to control the feathering around it to display it or not. So even when birds are feeding this fleshy stripe is sometimes not evident.

I've attached a couple of images of Chatham albatross taken off the Pyramid during our trip in Dec 2010 showing the same fleshy gape for comparison.

068048_091219.jpg (87.46 KiB) Viewed 3467 times

067995_091219.jpg (90.42 KiB) Viewed 3467 times

Cheers,

[ledzep]

Thanks Brent. There is no mention of the coloured gape in Robertson & Heather, and when I do a search on google images for Bullers Mollymawk most of the photos don't show the gape - your Chathams photos certainly do. Seems that most of the time it isn't visible. I hadn't noticed this before in the Bullers seen off Kaikoura. A small but interesting point.

[Brent Stephenson]

Yeah, I suspect it's a mood thing rather than just a straight feeding thing. Seems they use it when they want to appear particularly fierce, as in when fighting over food. Can't say that I've seen it a lot, but when you see it it is quite striking!

Cheers,

[julianfitter]

I think most of the Mollymawks have this feature, and it is certainly used at times in display and when upset or aggressive, but not always,
Cheers