Two colour-banded albatrosses from New Zealand get photographed at sea off Australia

Gibson’s Antipodean Albatross red 51K, photograph by David Harper

On 10 May 2025 off the shelf break from Port MacDonnell, South Australia, David Harper photographed an Antipodean Albatross Diomedea antipodensis with leg band red 51K, as reported on the Seabirds and Pelagics Australia Facebook page.

Taking flight. Gibson’s Antipodean Albatross red 51K, photograph by David Harper

New Zealand albatross researcher Kath Walker has:replied to a query on the same page.

"It’s a young adult female Gibson’s wandering albatross Diomedea antipodensis gibsoni, which Graeme ]Taylor] and I banded on 7 January 2024 when she nested for the first time in our study area on Adams Island in the Auckland Island group.  She would have been at least 10 years old at the time, and probably more like 12 or 15 years old as her partner was a 24-year-old, recently widowed male, and they normally choose birds roughly their own age.”

Gibson’s Antipodean Albatross red 51K breeding on Adams Island, photograph by Kath Walker

“I’ve attached a photo of her I took when we banded her – she’d just made all the finishing touches to her nest which is why her bill is so dirty, and her breast too – 2024 was a wet season and nests were muddy.  The male does the basics in getting a nest ready but when the females arrive all ready to lay, they frantically do all the finishing touches to make ‘nice”!  The red dot above her bill is temporary stock marker we put on birds once they’ve laid to remind us we’ve read her band and doesn’t need to be approached closely again.

Their nesting attempt in 2024 failed when their big feathered chick died (it was a very poor breeding season – only 46% in the [study area] were successful).

Having such a late failure left the pair in too poor a condition to try again this year, so when you saw Red-51K, she was on a breeding sabbatical to regain condition.  The shelf break off south Australia is a favourite – presumably rich- place for Gibson’s albatross to forage.

Southern Buller’s Albatross white A11, photographs by Ian Melbourne

On 17 May 2025, as posted on the same Facebook page, Ian Melbourne photographed a Buller's Albatross Thalassarche bulleri with a back-mounted tracker, along with leg bands white A11 left  and metal right off Eaglehawk Neck, Tasmania.  According to a comment the bird was a Southern Buller’s Albatross of the nominate subspecies from the Snares Islands.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 21 May 2025