Albatross ID query

[TomWells]

During a seawatch off Taiaroa head yesterday I photographed the below albatross and would be interested in getting an expert opinion on the identification. Compared to the other 3 Southern Royal Albatross I observed, this one has very little black on the inner trailing edge of the wings, a large amount of white generally on the inner wings and some white patches on the outer wing. There is also a small amount of black on the tail which I presume suggests a younger bird/one in non-breeding plumage. The bird appears to lack any black on the leading edge, which would seem to rule out Antipodean Albatross?!

Fishing/wildlife cruise boats were passing close the headland with a large entourage of seabirds including 35+ Northern Royal Albatross, 3 Southern Royal Albatross, 13 White-capped Mollymawks, 6 Salvin's Mollymawks, 1 Northern Giant Petrel, 3 Cape Petrels and 7 White-chinned Petrels. Shearwaters were also passing through including 3 Buller's and 30 small species, most of which appeared to be Fluttering. It was also great to see 3 N Royal's on the nest up at the centre.

Thanks,
Tom

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P1050886.JPG (306.84 KiB) Viewed 2018 times

[Steve Wood]

Hi Tom,
Looks like a Southern Royal or possibly adult Snowy Albatross. The bill detail would confirm but hard to see from this image.

[sav]

Hi all,

It looks like a Southern Royal to me. I don't think it has any black in the tail - isn't that the feet?

cheers

[Steve Wood]

Looks like feet- no black on tail that I can see either.

[TomWells]

Excellent thanks for your input,

Yep its the feet showing in the photos, but through the scope it looked like there was a thin black line along the tip of the tail. The bird was pretty distant so apologies for the quality of the images. I have included the final photo below

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