Three Light-mantled Albatrosses were counted over the duration of the Great Backyard Bird Count; photograph by Jaimie Cleeland

The results of the 2023 Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) are in and the number of ACAP-listed birds spotted was more than double the total counted in 2022’s event. Last year 628 individual birds were spotted, whereas in this year’s count a total of 1477 individual birds were reported. The event took place Friday 17 February to Monday 20 February 2023.

Checklists containing bird species listed under the Agreement were submitted by birdwatchers from across the globe including Antarctica, Argentina, Australia, Chile, the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)*, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States of America. 21 of ACAP’s 31 listed species were accounted for: 15 of 22 albatross species, five of seven petrel species, and one of the two shearwater species. The results can be found in the table below.

Launched in 1998 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society, and joined by Birds Canada in 2009, the GBBC project marked its 26^th anniversary this year. It has become the world’s largest citizen science project related to biodiversity, providing researchers with a valuable snapshot of global bird populations. 

An estimated half a million bird enthusiasts took part in this year’s count, identifying an impressive 7,538 species of birds. To dig deeper into the results of the 2023 event, head to birdcount.org where a comprehensive review can be found.

Missed this year’s GBBC? Get ready for 2024’s by marking February 16 – 19 in your calendar, or take part in bird counting events still to come this year, including: 

• Global Big Day - 13 May 2023
• Aussie Bird Count - 16-22 October 2023

*A dispute exists between the Governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland concerning sovereignty over the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (Islas Georgias del Sur y Islas Sandwich del Sur) and the surrounding maritime areas.

19 April 2023

Cigarette lighters, bottle tops, a toothbrush and a toy soldier. A Black-footed Albatross and chick on Midway Atoll, after a photograph by Wieteke Holzhausen

The Albatross and Petrel Agreement has chosen the theme “Plastic Pollution” to mark the fourth World Albatross Day, to be celebrated on 19 June 2023 (WAD2023). The featured albatross species for this year are once more the North Pacific Black-footed Phoebastria nigripes and the Laysan P. immutabilis, along with the globally Endangered Northern Royal D. sanfordi endemic to New Zealand, and the abundant and widespread Black-browed Thalassarche melanophris. For the first three months of the year ACAP has once more been collaborating with Artists and Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN) on its 43rd Project to produce artworks that will help increase awareness of the conservation plight facing the world’s albatrosses and support WAD2023. This the fourth collaboration with ABUN, resulting in 75 artworks by 31 artists, including no less than seven by Brazilian amateur artist Flávia Barreto - five of which are illustrated here.

A colour-banded Black-browed Albatross guards its chick on Bird Island in the South Atlantic, after a photograph by Erin Taylor

Flávia, who paints in watercolour, gouache and acrylic, lives in Nova Friburgo in south-eastern Brazil. She describes herself as an amateur artist and a retired civil servant. After retirement she decided there was still time to learn more and to dedicate her life to art. Being a lover of nature and animals, her art and interests have gradually evolved to drawing and painting threatened species.

Two Northern Royal Albatrosses interact at sea off New Zealand, after a photograph by Hadoram Shirihai

She writes to ALN: “Plastic pollution in the oceans is a global and urgent crisis threatening marine wildlife, food safety and human health. Albatrosses are direct victims of human conduct, as they may die or get injured by ingesting or getting entangled in plastic waste. We can help to raise awareness of governments, organizations and communities by contributing to conservation initiatives such as those of ACAP. As a member of ABUN I am glad to be able to contribute through my work to World Albatross Day once again and join the fight against plastic pollution.”

A Black-footed Albatross is surrounded by washed-up plastic bottles and fishing floats, after a photograph by Matthew Chauvin, The Ocean Cleanup

View Flávia Barreto’s art in support of last year’s World Albatross Day with its theme of “Climate Change” here.

Squid, but also plastic? A Laysan Albatross regurgitates a meal to its chick, photograph by Hob Osterlund

With grateful thanks to Flávia Barreto, Kitty Harvill and Marion Schön of Artists and Biologists Unite for Nature and to Matthew Chauvin, Wieteke Holzhausen, Hob Osterlund, Hadoram Shirihai and Eric Taylor for the use of their photographs.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 18 April 2023

A Manx Shearwater; photo by Nathan Fletcher

Clare Alley (School of Animal, Rural and Environmental Sciences, Nottingham Trent University, UK) and colleagues have published in the journal Seabird on plastic ingestion in Manx Shearwaters on Skomer Island, Wales.

The paper’s abstract follows, 

“Plastic debris is ubiquitous in the marine environment, and seabirds are among the most impacted marine vertebrates. Plastic ingestion was investigated in an internationally-important breeding population of Manx Shearwaters Puffinus puffinus on Skomer Island, Wales in 2018–19. Opportunistic necropsies were carried out on a total of 34 birds to collect contents of the gastrointestinal tract: 13 adults from April to July 2019 and 12 fledglings during September 2019, and a further nine opportunistic necropsies carried out from adults from July to September 2018. The presence, quantity, size and colour of plastic in the gastrointestinal tract was investigated. Plastic was found in 71% of Manx Shearwater stomachs (68% of adults, 75% of fledglings). Adults were found to have larger plastic pieces in their gastrointestinal tract than fledglings, and lighter birds had larger pieces of plastic in their tracts than heavier birds. This study shows that Manx Shearwaters on Skomer Island are vulnerable to plastic ingestion, and that adults are likely to pass plastic to their chicks.”

Reference:

Alley, C.L., Arkless, S., Ames, E., Abrahams, M., Gentle, L.K. & Wood, M.J. 2022. Plastic ingestion in adult and fledgling Manx Shearwaters Puffinus puffinus on Skomer Island, Wales. Seabird 34: 33-44

17 April 2023

Fledgling Flesh-footed Shearwaters on Lord Howe Island in May 2022: (left) a healthy chick collected in the colony (hit by a motor vehicle) and (right) a similar age bird found washed up on the beach with substantially lower body mass, shorter wing length, and downy feathers

Jenn Lavers and Alex Bond (Bird Group, The Natural History Museum, Tring, UK) have published open access in the journal ICES Journal of Marine Science on the deterioration in fledging body condition of Flesh-footed Shearwaters Ardenna carneipes over the long-term.

Proportion of fledgling Flesh-footed Shearwaters encountered on Lord Howe Island with a body mass >400 g during 2010–2022

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Marine systems are under increasing pressure from anthropogenic activities. In recent decades, the deteriorating condition of the world’s seabird populations suggests these pressures have reached a tipping point. For young birds, body mass can significantly influence survival in the critical period between nest departure and recruitment to the breeding population. On Lord Howe Island, we measured Flesh-footed Shearwater (Ardenna carneipes) fledglings in the colony and adjacent beaches to determine how body condition changed during 2010–2022. Overall, we found chick body mass as well as wing, culmen, and head + bill length declined over time with larger declines observed in beach-washed birds. Culmen and head + bill length declined by 0.17 and 0.23 mm/year, respectively, and body mass by 16.1 g/year. The number of chicks fledging at <400 g has increased sharply in recent years, meaning significant numbers of birds are unlikely to survive after departing the island. Our results point to a deepening of the division in the shearwater population: adult birds who can successfully provision sufficient nutrient reserves so their chick fledges successfully, and those who cannot. In this latter group, failure at the fledging stage (beached birds) is resulting in birds in increasingly poor condition, the likes of which were seldom documented 13 years ago.”

Reference:

Lavers, J.L. & Bond, A.L. 2023. Long-term decline in fledging body condition of Flesh-footed Shearwaters (Ardenna carneipes). ICES Journal of Marine Science. https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsad048

10 April 2023