Albatross identification

[Craig McKenzie]

Hopefully this will demonstrate the usefulness of this site and provide me with the ID of an albatross found in the middle of Awarua Bay in the winter of 2007. Is it a juvenile Southern Bullers, Grey-headed or something else? There are also pimples around the eye. Does anyone know what they are?

[Rodney]

I'm no albatross ID expert, but having a go at ID of the bird with "Identification of Seabirds of the Southern Ocean" by Derek Onley and Sandy Bartle, and lacking critical measurements and underwing patterns, I'd guess that it is a Buller's Albatross, because it has "bill brownish" (pinkish?) "with variable darker markings", (illustration shows these at top and bottom of bill), "head and neck grey with paler or white cap, and sometimes a greyish collar". To fit it would have underwing of "white with narrow black margins, wider on the leading edge." The book also says "the bills of older birds develop a paler version of the adult pattern."

Recommend the book, published in 1999 (Reprint 2001) by Te Papa Press, so probably best bet is still to get it from Te Papa Museum in Wellington.

[Brent Stephenson]

Hi Craig,

The bird is actually an immature Salvin's albatross - one of the 'split' Shy albatross group. Interesting find for Awarua Bay! What happened to the bird - was it taken into care? (NB Just amended this post - a nice thing about forums is you can edit your post! I meant to say immature not adult - an adult would have a horn coloured line down the top of the bill). Nice photos.

Not my best shot, but just quickly the attached image is what the underwing of a Salvin's albatross looks like. Thin leading and trailing black edge to the underwing. Whatsmore, all members of the Shy group - Salvin's, white-capped, shy, and Chatham Island - have a dark 'thumb' print at the base of the wing on the leading edge. It is quite prominent in this shot. A Buller's albatross would have a much thicker dark leading edge to the underwing, and the bill is blackish with a yellow stripe on the top and bottom of the bill.

(13.21 KiB) Viewed 19845 times

The 'pimples' around the bird's eye look to be ticks, and possibly are something to do with the cause of this bird sitting on a mudflat somewhat out of it's normal habitat! You can often see lice on albatross and other seabirds - especially on the white feathers where the small dark lice are obvious. I've seen this a number of times on albatross off Kaikoura, and also on gannets at Cape Kidnappers (a lot!). But in this case these appear to be ticks embedded in the skin around the eye.

As far as seabird books go - these days you really can't go past Onley and Scofield - Albatrosses, Petrels and Shearwaters of the World. One of the Helm Field Guides series, published by Christopher Helm.

Cheers,

[Rewi]

Ticks. A sure sign why the bird's broken-down on land.
I've heard of staff at bird observatories using the anti-tick and flea
fluid meant for dogs and cats. The stuff comes in little blue plastic
phails, and is supposed to be dripped onto the skin on the back
of the the neck. It's systemic, and kills already -imbedded ticks
and other parasites for a month, then prevents re-infestation for
three further months in mammals. Dunno how long the substance
would remain in the system of birds with their much faster metabolic
rate, but well worth a try on an obviously run-down specimen like this.
Anyone else used it on birds?
Rewi

[Richard Schofield]

I can't claim to have vast experience of immature albatross/mollymawks, but why isn't this a Buller's? The jizz does not look right for Salvin's, in particular the bill and head do not look heavy enough.

Richard

[farnorth]

The seabird tick is most likely Ixodes uriae of which at least 53 viruses have been isolated and some of them are transmitable to man so be warey when handling sick/injured birds. Birds tend to take on more parasites internal and external when in a run down condition though shoratage of food or the ability to catch food through perhaps a virus. Black Swan is a recent example in NZ where the small intestine of most birds has a loading of cestode, in extreme cases these birds are unable to fly and therefore head in a downward sprial fast.
The seabird tick has no boundaries so any virus causing problems with seabird colonies in the northernhemisphere could well be causing problems down here. Does anyone know of tick research being done in NZ?
Cheers Kevin

[Brent Stephenson]

OK,
Well I may end up eating humble pie on this one (it isn't the first time, and certainly won't be the last!), but I'm not yet convinced! I should have looked more carefully at the bill and head structure as Richard points out, it does indeed seem to have a longer, skinnier bill than it should if it was a Salvin's. In particular the base of the bill does not seem deep enough. So I have attached a couple of images below.

This first picture is of an adult Salvin's alb, showing typical bill colouration.

(36.3 KiB) Viewed 19803 times

This second picture is of an adult Buller's alb, also showing typical bill colouration.

(40.46 KiB) Viewed 19803 times

This last photo is of an immature Salvin's alb, showing a rather darker bill with more of a dark spot on the tip (showing on both upper and lower mandibles), and the pale top to the bill is paler with overall less of a yellow hue through the stripe and the grey of the rest of the bill. Presumably though, this bird is a late stage immature.

(39.09 KiB) Viewed 19803 times

Other points to note are the amount of black skin visible at the base of the upper mandible - where it meets the forehead, and the amount of black skin around the nostril. In Salvin's the skin at the forehead (as with other Shy group albs) is quite prominent, whereas in Buller's it is not so prominent. In Salvin's the skin around the nostril tends not to be so obvious, but Buller's does show more skin in this area, although in adults this is hard to detect due to the bill colour. The unidentified bird seems to fit more with Buller's with regards to both of these. Shape of the forehead (being relatively steep) and the amount of white around the eye also tend to point to Buller's. However, take a look at these pages on Tony Pym's website (http://www.seabirding.co.uk/)-

http://www.seabirding.co.uk/WhichAlbatross.html
http://www.seabirding.co.uk/ImmatureAlbatrosses.html

The Buller's alb in these photos seems to be a later stage immature with dark sides to the bill, and to be honest this is what I was expecting a juvenile Buller's to look like. However, Onley & Scofield suggest that juv Buller's actually have a bill with "pale greyish-yellow with prominent black semicircular marks on tips of both mandibles and dark marks around nostrils". Hence my confusion (or at least that is a poor attempt at an excuse).

Or could it be grey-headed? Nope, not in my opinion. Grey-headed tend to have quite a different shaped bill, being rather thin but with quite a bulbous tip. As outlined in the latter link above the shape of the bill plates is quite different, especially towards the tip, and our unidentified bird definitely does not have the same shaped bill plates as a grey-headed. Quite a good photo of an adult can be found at this link...

http://www.arkive.org/grey-headed-albat ... rysostoma/

So at the moment I am a little undecided. Partly, this is because I've never knowingly seen or photographed a juvenile Buller's alb. Interested in others thoughts on this.

Cheers,

[Rodney]

Have a look at the Buller's Albatross under H on page 43 of Onley and Bartle.

Isn't this most like the bird in Craig's photograph ?

[Craig McKenzie]

Thank you all for your imformative replies. I was wrong in thinking those in the know could tell from bill alone.

While it stayed on the ground most of the time I was there, at one stage it made a short flight to higher ground. I tend to concentrate on getting it in the viewfinder and in focus rather than looking at identifying features. Get the photo first and identify later is my motto. I only managed one photo that shows a glimpse of the underwing. Is the thick black leading edge and lack of armpit triangle enough to confirm Bullers?



Later on while searching for the true target for the day, NZ Dotterels, I saw the albatross fly over Tiwai Peninsula and presumably out to sea.

Thanks again. Regards

[Rodney]

Another nice pic, but not sure it allows any definitive conclusions based on the underwing or leading edge. I'm still convinced it's a young Buller's Albatross.

The key for it being a young Buller's not Salvins Albatross, is that all the illustrations in Onley and Bartle both the adult and young Salvins, have the orange or yellow line down the base of the lower mandible. The young Buller's Albatross has no yellow line down the base of the lower mandible.