A breeding Waved Albatross on Isla de La Plata, photograph by Enzo Reyes

Dr Enzo Reyes is leading a pioneering project that aims to use social attraction techniques to bolster the small population of the Critically Endangered Waved Albatrosses Phoebastria irrorata on Isla de La Plata, 41 kilometres offshore from the fishing village of Puerto López on the mainland of Ecuador.  This initiative, the first of its kind for the species, is a collaborative effort involving Enzo Reyes, the Machalilla National Park, the Ecuadorian NGO Equilibrio Azul and the American Bird Conservancy.  The project’s primary goal is to prevent the local extinction of the Waved Albatross colony on La Plata, which represents only a very small percentage of the species’ main population which is based on Isla Española in the Galapagos Islands.

Enzo Reyes and a volunteer band a breeding Waved Albatross in 2023, photograph by Equilibrio Azul

Enzo Reyes writes to ACAP Latest News: “Our objective is to increase colony attendance and reproductive success over time, ultimately establishing La Plata as an insurance population for the species and improving the species’ threatened conservation status, due a decreasing population and both accidental and deliberate capture.  The project was launched in September 2022 with an initial site reconnaissance and bird census.  In 2023, the team banded all the breeding birds in the colony using metal and colour-coded plastic bands for individual identification.  Banding allows us to track returning individuals and detect any new arrivals to the colony. We are also using different colour bands from those used in the Galápagos Islands, enabling us to monitor our birds separately”.

 
Decoys deployed next to the speakers near the main albatross landing area, photograph by Enzo Reyes

Enzo continues “In March 2025 the team deployed 20 albatross decoys, with a follow-up expedition planned for the coming weeks to install an acoustic attraction system.  We are setting up social attraction cues now, as the 2025 breeding season is expected to begin soon.  This timing will help maximise the chances of attracting prospecting or passing birds to La Plata.”

The project has been formally presented to Ecuador’s ACAP representative and to members of the Ecuadorian Ministry of Environment’s Marine and Coastal Division. Additionally, a workshop will be conducted in the coming weeks to introduce the project to Machalilla National Park Rangers and provide capacity-building training.

Machalilla National Park Ranger, Equilibrio Azul member and volunteer with a speaker during a colony visit in September 2022, photograph by Enzo Reyes

The arid 1200-ha island forms part of the 46 000-ha Machalilla National Park, which includes a 14 430-ha Ramsar Wetland of International Importance (Zona Marina Parque Nacional Machalilla, Site No. 503, designated in 1990).

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 24 March 2025

A Hutton’s Shearwater incubates its egg in an artificial burrow in the Te Rae o Atiu colony, photograph from the Hutton's Shearwater Charitable Trust

The Endangered Hutton’s Shearwater Puffinus huttoni breeds naturally only in two colonies high up in the mountains of the Seaward Kaikōura Ranges behind the seaside town of Kaikōura on the east coast of New Zealand’s South Island, where they are risk to landslides caused by earthquakes and feral pigs.  Additionally fledglings are downed by bright lights in the town, when they become at risk to cars, cats and dogs alike.  As a consequence, a long-standing effort has been underway over two decades by the Hutton's Shearwater Charitable Trust to establish a new breeding colony secure within a predator-proof-fence, hand rearing translocated chicks in artificial burrows.

A Hutton’s Shearwater chick close to fledging in the Te Rae o Atiu colony, photograph from the Hutton's Shearwater Charitable Trust

With fledged birds now returning each year to breed, the Te Rae o Atiu colony on the Kaikōura Peninsula at a low altitude is moving to a more mature stage, although some underweight chicks continue to receive “sardine smoothies” to supplement their natural diet fed to them by their parents.  In the current 2024/25 breeding season as fledging commences this month, the relocation colony is reported as faring well, with “about 90 adult birds returned to the colony, 42 eggs laid and 32 hatching”, of which a record 30 chicks have survived.  The Hutton's Shearwater Charitable Trust is ambitious: “At the moment it is a very tiny colony, but our plan is that over the next 100 years it grows to a colony of at least 10 000 breeding pairs.”

Slow down for Hutton’s Shearwater fledglings, as a sign along a Kaikōura street requests, photograph from the Hutton's Shearwater Charitable Trust

The Te Rae o Atiu colony is a partnership between Tukete Charitable Trust, which owns the land, Te Rūnanga o Kaikōura, the Hutton's Shearwater Charitable Trust and the Department of Conservation.

Read a book review on the Hutton’s Shearwater in its mountain home.

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

George (on left) and Geraldine, photograph by USFWS Volunteer Joe Owen

Midway Atoll’s well-known Short-tailed Albatrosses Phoebastria albatrus George and Geraldine did not hatch their egg this breeding season, according to a report from the Facebook page of the Friends of Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge.

George (on left) and Geraldine, photograph by USFWS Volunteer Joe Owen

The two birds, the sole breeding pair on Midway, have successfully raised and fledged five chicks in the last six breeding seasons.

Read more about George and Geraldine in ACAP Latest News.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 20 March 2025

Calonectris sp. shearwater with abnormal plumage, off Calheta, Madeira, Portugal, 14 November 2023, photograph by Pedro Nascimento (from the publication)

Pedro Nascimento (On Tales – Unipessoal, Limitada, Funchal, Portugal) and colleagues have published in the open-access journal Marine Ornithology on photographing a shearwater Calonectris sp. with abnormal plumage.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Herein, we report a with aberrant plumage, observed southwest off Madeira Island.  The bird had an unusual amount of white feathering, more than has been reported so far for the genus.  Both upperparts and underparts were predominantly white. Initially, we thought the bird was a leucistic Cory's Shearwater C. borealis, but some characteristics could not be ascertained.  Records of such aberrations should be published to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the subject.”

Reference:

Nascimento, P., Santos, E., Gonçalves, J. & Teixeira, M. 2025.  First aberrant coloured Calonectris shearwater recorded in Madeira, Portugal.  Marine Ornithology 53: 115–117.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 19 March 2025