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title: "Taking a break?  Another colour-banded Black-browed Albatross gets photographed in southern African waters"
---

# Taking a break?  Another colour-banded Black-browed Albatross gets photographed in southern African waters

Following on from a [recent report](http://www.acap.aq/index.php/en/news/latest-news/1750-a-colour-banded-black-browed-albatross-gets-photographed-at-sea-off-namibia) in *ACAP Latest News* of a colour-banded Black-browed Albatross *Thalassarche melanophris* being photographed in Namibian waters, Chrissie Madden ([Albatross Task Force, BirdLife South Africa](http://www.birdlife.org.za/conservation/seabird-conservation/albatross-task-force)) photographed a Black-browed Albatross with a white-on-red colour band numbered 554 on its left leg and a metal band on the right beside a demersal trawler on 13 May 2014 off the southern coast of Cape Town, South Africa at 35° 24’S; 18° 48’E.

 ![](https://www.acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Albatrosses/B/Black_browed/BBA_ringed Chrissie Madden.jpg)

 Red 544 comes into for a landing, photograph by Chrissie Madden

 Andy Wood of the British Antarctic Survey reports to *ACAP Latest News* that Red 554 was banded at [Bird Island](http://www.acap.aq/index.php/en/news/latest-news/1339-acap-breeding-sites-no-16-bird-island-south-atlantic-where-albatrosses-and-petrels-have-been-studied-for-decades) in the South Atlantic:

 “It was ringed as an adult bird in 2007/08 with the red darvic [=plastic] and metal ring number 1434093.  It was a breeding bird in 2007/08, 2008/09 and 2009/10, then seen as a non-breeder in 2010/11 and again this season (2013/14).  The partner in the earlier three breeding seasons was the same bird 1425800/Red 943, and none of the breeding attempts [was] successful, all failing at the late chick stage.  1425800 has not been seen in the colony since 2009/10 - possibly the reason why Red 554 has not bred since then.”

 With thanks to Chrissie Madden and Andy Wood for information.

 *John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 04 June 2014*