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title: "The Amsterdam Albatross and other seabirds of the French territories in the Southern Ocean and Antarctica"
---

# The Amsterdam Albatross and other seabirds of the French territories in the Southern Ocean and Antarctica

Olivier Duriez ([CNRS-CEFE](http://www.cefe.cnrs.fr/en)) and Karine Delord ([CNRS-CEBC](http://www.cebc.cnrs.fr/)) have published an illustrated account in the journal *[Ornithos](http://www.kjhall.org.uk/ornithos.htm)*of the birds of Terres australes et antarctiques françaises (TAAF) in French, one of the three official languages of the Albatross and Petrel Agreement.

 TAAF includes the sub-Antarctic island groups of Crozet, St Paul and Amsterdam and Kerguelen in the southern Indian Ocean and Terre Adélie on the Antarctic Continent.  *Ornithos* is a full-colour journal that appears six times a year and is published by the Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux ([LPO](http://www.lpo.fr/)), the BirdLife  International partner in France.

  Notably, the article includes pictures of a flying immature Amsterdam Albatross *Diomedea amsterdamensis* and an adult with a downy chick, a species not often illustrated.  The [Critically Endangered](http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=3953) Amsterdam Albatross is the World's rarest albatross and is endemic to TAAF, breeding only on Amsterdam Island.  The annually breeding population is about 25-30 pairs, with an estimated total population of around 150 birds.

 ![Amsterdam_Albatross_by_Scott_Shaffer](https://www.acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Albatrosses/A/Amsterdam/Amsterdam_Albatross_by_Scott_Shaffer.jpg)  
Amsterdam Albatross.  Photograph by Scott Shaffer

 [Click here](https://www.acap.aq/acap-species) to access the ACAP Species Assessment for the Amsterdam Albatross (and of the other seven albatross and four ACAP-listed petrel species that breed within the TAAF).  A table in the *Ornithos* article lists these 12 species with their French breeding localities and estimates of breeding populations.

 Reference:

 Duriez, O. & Delord, K. 2012.  Manchots, pétrels et albatros: oiseaux des Terres australes et antarctiques françaises (TAAF).  [*Ornithos*19: 162-183](http://www.cebc.cnrs.fr/publipdf/2012/DO19_2012.pdf).

 John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 30 October 2012