It seems that 2015 is to be a bumper year for Near Threatened Laysan Albatrosses Phoebastria immutabilis in the USA’s Hawaiian Islands due to favourable oceanographic conditions.  Kure Atoll has a record population of 38 307 breeding pairs this year and Pacific Rim Conservation reports a similar situation in the Kaena Point Natural Area Refuge on Oahu.  Numbers of Laysans are also well up on Midway Atoll (click here).

Laysan Albatrosses at Kaena Point, photograph by Lindsay Young

Perhaps partially related is that some Laysan Albatrosses have started breeding at a young age as Pacific Rim Conservation has reported on its Facebook page and to ACAP Latest News.

"[N]ot only is this shaping up to be a record year at most Laysan Albatross colonies for number of birds nesting, we have also set another record at Kaena- we have a four year old male breeding for the first time as well as multiple five year old birds. This is the youngest recorded breeding age for a male Laysan Albatross."  A female was recorded breeding at Kaena Point a few years ago as a four-year-old.  Both birds had fledged from Kaena Point.

Age of first breeding for this species of albatross in one study conducted on Midway Atoll with large samples was from five to 16 years (mean nine years), but with very few birds of either sex recorded commencing breeding as five-year-olds – or after 12 years.  Females tend to lag one year behind males.

With thanks to Lindsay Young, ACAP North Pacific News Correspondent for information.

Reference:

Van Rizen, M.T. & Fisher, H.I. 1976.  The age of Laysan Albatrosses, Diomedea immutabilis at first breeding.  The Condor 78: 1-9.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 26 January 2015

Fernando Azevedo Faria (Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande, Brazil) and colleagues have published in the journal Waterbirds on a stranding of procellariiform seabirds in Brazil.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Mass strandings of seabirds occur frequently on many beaches worldwide and commonly involve penguins, petrels, shearwaters, and prions, among others.  Large numbers of stranded albatrosses are rarely reported.  In this paper, an unusual stranding event that involved five species of Procellariiformes, predominantly the Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross (Thalassarche chlororhynchos), is described in southern Brazil.  Carcasses and debilitated specimens of Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatrosses (n = 125), unidentified petrels/shearwaters (Procellariidae; n = 63), White-chinned Petrels (Procellaria aequinoctialis; n = 52), Great Shearwaters (Puffinus gravis; n = 11), Manx Shearwaters (Puffinus puffinus; n = 4) and Cory's Shearwater (Calonectris borealis; n = 1) were found stranded between 15 and 22 March 2013.  Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatrosses (n = 20) and White-chinned Petrel (n = 1) were found alive and remained in the rehabilitation center for a few days before being released.  A total of at least 256 birds were affected during the 8 days of the event, but a larger number likely remained undetected.  Rescued Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatrosses were not emaciated, and the causes of their stranding remain unknown.  Equal or greater numbers of stranded petrels had been recorded previously in the area, but strandings of a large number of albatrosses are unusual in southern Brazil and elsewhere.”

Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross, photograph by Peter Ryan

Click here for a report of another albatross stranding in Brazil.

Reference:

Faria, F.A., Burgueño, L.E.T., dos Santos Weber, F., de Souza, F.J.& Bugoni, L. 2014.  Unusual mass stranding of Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross (Thalassarche chlororhynchos), petrels and shearwaters in southern Brazil.  Waterbirds 37: 446-450.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 25 January 2015

On 24 December last year the Hawaiian Department Land and Natural Resources (DNLR) field crew on Kure Atoll in the USA’s North-western Hawaiian Islands photographed an immature Short-tailed Albatross Phoebastria albatrus (foreground in photograph below) visiting the nest site of the well-known female-female pair.

The partially-obscured golden-headed bird appears to be a decoy 

This pair has been present on Kure since 2010 when observations began (click here).  Two eggs are laid in the same nest each year but do not hatch. The resident albatross incubating on the nest (banded 13A-1456) in the photo is the youngest of the pair.  She was banded in 2000 as a chick.  Her female partner (banded 13A-0703), who was then away at sea foraging after taking the previous incubation shift, was banded in 1993.  This is considered a promising sign that the six recently installed Short-tailed Albatross decoys may have played a role in attracting the new bird.

The Kure crew sighted a second new Short-tailed Albatross on the atoll on 10 January this year (below).   The bird is an immature with predominantly brown plumage and a pink bill.

The Short-tailed Albatross below photographed in flight over the atoll is in an intermediate plumage and is one of the regular visitors to Kure.

There are only six other records of individual Short-tailed Albatrosses on Kure, although some of these may be of resightings.

As for other albatross breeding sites in the Hawaiian Islands (click here), Kure Atoll is also having a bumper breeding season in 2014/15.

With acknowledgement to the Kure Atoll Conservancy Facebook Page for information and photographs. 

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 24 January 2015

Bianca Vieira (Centro Nacional de Pesquisa e Conservação de Aves Silvestres, Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade, Brazil) and colleagues have written in Check List (an online journal of biodiversity data) on bird surveys conducted within Brazil’s Arvoredo Marine Biological Reserve.  A total of 17 procellariiform birds was  recorded at sea within the reserve, among them nine species of ACAP-listed albatrosses and petrels.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“The Arvoredo Marine Biological Reserve (RBMA) is a protected area in southern Brazil created in 1990 to safeguard the marine biodiversity of the Arvoredo Archipelago.  There are only few studies about bird assemblage in most of the Brazilian coastal islands, including this protected area.  Therefore, this paper presents the first complete list of birds for RBMA based on data from literature and surveys between 1986 and 2012 on islands and surrounding waters.  Birds were recorded during captures using mist-nets and opportunistic observations on land in January 2012, as well as in monthly strip-transects and sectors on sea between 2010 and 2012.  The present list includes 84 species (15 captured) from primary data and 22 species from other sources, totaling 106 species from 37 families.  Bird assemblage in the RBMA is composed by 44 aquatic birds and 62 landbirds, whereas 13 are endemic to the Atlantic Forest and 12 are threatened.  As expected due to the diversity of habitats, Arvoredo and Galé Islands supported the richest assemblages in the RBMA.  The number of species in the whole RBMA is smaller than bigger islands elsewhere in the Atlantic Forest domain, but similar to same-sized and same-habitat ones.  Our results highlight the importance of this reserve as a suitable and isolated habitat to forest species.  Deserta Island is an important site for nesting, resting, and foraging seabirds.”

Black-browed Albatross, photograph by John Larsen

Reference:

Vieira, B.P, Dias, D., Rocha, H.J.F. & Serafini, P.P. 2015.  Birds of the Arvoredo Marine Biological Reserve, southern Brazil.  Check List 11.  DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.15560/11.1.1532.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 24 January 2015