Red List Category & Criteria: CR B2ab(v) ver 3.1 (2001) Year Assessed: 2007, Assessor/s: BirdLife International Evaluator/s: Bird, J., Butchart, S. (BirdLife International Red List Authority) & Sullivan, B. (BirdLife International Global Seabirds Programme) Justification: This species has been uplisted to Critically Endangered because new evidence shows that it now appears to be declining, primarily owing to bycatch in longline fisheries. This, combined with its extremely small breeding range on a single island, means that it is now highly threatened. History: 1988 - Near-threatened (Collar and Andrew 1988) 1994 - Lower Risk/near threatened (Collar, Crosby and Stattersfield 1994) 2000 - Vulnerable (BirdLife International 2000) 2003 - Vulnerable (IUCN 2003) 2004 - Vulnerable (BirdLife International 2004) 2005 - Vulnerable (BirdLife International 2005) BirdLife International 2007. Phoebastria irrorata. In: IUCN 2007. 2007 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 13 April 2008.

  
Waved Albatross, Hood Island (aka Isla Espanola). Hood Island has 12,000 breeding pairs of waved albatross, and is the only known
breeding colony. These birds mate for life, and fly 25 million miles during their lifetime. Their complex pair-bonding display includes
bill-dueling, neighing, snapping their bills like castanets, head-bobbing, sway-walking, and this move, called the open gate.
© John Schwarz, www.birdspix.com

The Waved Albatross, Phoebastria irrorata - also known as Galapagos Albatross -
is the only member of the Diomedeidae family located in the tropics.
When they forage, the Waved Albatross follow straight paths to a single site off the coast of Peru,
about 1,000 km distant to the east. During the non-breeding season, these birds reside primarily
in the areas of the Ecuador and Peruvian coasts. A waved albatrosse's life span is up to 40-45 years.

These are medium-sized albatrosses, measuring about 86 cm (34 in) long,
weighing in at 3.4 kg (7.5 lbs) and having a wingspan 2.27 m (7.5 ft).

They are distinctive for their yellowish-cream neck and head,
which contrasts with their mostly brownish bodies.
Even more distinctive is the very long, bright yellow bill.
Chicks when they are born are very small and have brown fluffy feathers.


Waved Albatross - courting ritual, Española Island, Galapagos, July 22, 2007
© John Schwarz, www.birdspix.com

The primary food sources of the Waved Albatross are fish, squid, and crustaceans.
But they have also been observed to scavenge for other food sources,
including the regurgitated food of other birds.
When foraging the Waved Albatross finds points in the ocean where prey will be more surfaced,
this is the most effective way for the waved albatross to get its food.
Waved Albatroses will forage 10 or even 100 kilometers away from the place
where their chicks are nesting to get food for them.

The population of Waved Albatrosses on the Galápagos is protected by national park personnel.
But limited range, bycatch by long-line fishing, disturbance via tourism, disease,
and the effects of illegal fishing in the nearby waters place them in considerable jeopardy.

Especially long-line fishing seems to be making a severe impact in the species,
which was uplisted to Vulnerable from Near Threateened by the IUCN in 2000.
Despite some 34,700 adult birds still occurring in 2001, their numbers have apparently
started to decrease at an unknown rate more recently,
probably due to longline fishing which also upsets the sex ratio (males being killed more frequently).
As the current situation makes the population highly vulnerable to a catastrophic collapse to extinction,
it is uplisted to Critically Endangered status in the 2007 IUCN Red List.

Waved Albatross - pair, Española Island, Galapagos, July 22, 2007
© John Schwarz, www.birdspix.com

The Waved Albatross breeds exclusively on Española Island in the Galápagos archipelago.
The nests are built on areas of lava with boulders and sparse vegetation.
The courtship of the Waved Albatross is a very elusive and spectacular site to see, it includes:
rapid bill circling and bowing, beak clacking, and an upraised bill to make a whoo hoo sound.

When the eggs are laid, they are laid between April and June, and incubated for two months after that. When the eggs hatch the chicks stay together in small nursuries, while the parents go out to sea to hunt. When the parents return they may feed the chicks up to 2kg of oil. The young reach adult size by December and leave the colony by January. The partners mate until one of the partners dies.


Waved Albatross in flight, Española Island, Galapagos, July 22, 2007
© John Schwarz, www.birdspix.com

Waved Albatross are spectacular flyers perhaps even the most famous.
They can fly for hours without stalling and they do this by dynamic soaring.
The wind speed near the surface of the sea is much slower then about 50feet in the air.
The waved albatross uses this to its advantage by gliding at speed into the wind.
As the Waved Albatross glides higher it loses most of its ground speed
because it is gliding into a wind of a higher speed.
However, though they lose their ground speed because they are gliding into a wind of a higher speed their air speed does not fall, enabling them to glide continuously.


Waved Albatroses do however because of their huge wings and slender bodies
have difficulty taking off and landing.
To make it easier they take off on cliffs that are more inland and not next to the coast.
The problem is when they come into land they have a high stalling speed,
when they take off its hard to beat their massive wings.

Text from http://en.wikipedia.org

Red List Category & Criteria: EN A3bd ver 3.1 (2001) Year Assessed: 2005 Assessor/s: BirdLife International Evaluator/s: Butchart, S., Stattersfield, A. (BirdLife International Red List Authority), Sullivan, B. (BirdLife International Global Seabirds Programme) & Croxall, J. (British Antarctic Survey) Justification: This species is listed to Endangered on the basis of a projected future decline of more than 60% over the next three generations (56 years), taking account of present rates of incidental mortality in longline fisheries in the north Pacific Ocean. History: 1988 - Lower Risk/least concern (BirdLife International 2004) 1994 - Lower Risk/least concern (BirdLife International 2004) 2000 - Vulnerable (BirdLife International 2000) 2003 - Endangered (IUCN 2003) 2004 - Endangered (BirdLife International 2004) ©IUCN 2004. 2004 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 9th April 2008.

The Black-footed Albatross is a small member of the family that has almost all black plumage.
(while still large compared to most other seabirds)

10% of individuals have white feathers at the base of the tail,
and all adults have white markings around the base of the beak and below the eye.
Its beak and feet are also all dark.
They average at about 81 cm (32 in) in length, weigh about 3.3 kg (7.4 lbs)
and have a wingspan of 2.1 m (6.9 ft).

The Black-footed Albatross, along with the Laysan Albatross and the rare Short-tailed Albatross,
are the three species of albatross that range in the northern hemisphere,
as opposed to the rest of the family which range from the Equator south.


Black-footed Albatross chick at sunset. Sand Island, Midway Atoll

They nest colonially on isolated islands of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands
(such as Laysan and Midway), and the Japanese islands of Tori Shima, Bonin, and Senkaku.
Their range at sea varies during the seasons (straying farther from the breeding islands
when the chicks are older or they don't have chicks)
but they make use of great areas of the North Pacific, feeding from Alaska to California and Japan.

They overlap greatly in breeding and feeding range with the other two species of northern albatross, although the other two will range further north into the Bering Sea than the Black-footed will.

A pair of Black-footed Albatrosses dancing Sand Island, Midway Atoll
These are Teenagers, widows, widowers, or divorcees.
Teenagers in that they have not paired yet, widows or widowers in that their mates have died,
or divorcees in that after several unsuccessful attempts to have offspring, they split assuming the problem is with the other.
The un-paired birds spend much of their time during about a six month period dancing.
If the paring works well they will mate next season.
Copyright ©2002 William H. Scholtz.

The Black-footed Albatross, like the rest of its family, forms long term pair-bonds that last for life.
After fledging the birds return to the colony after three years, and spend two years building nests, dancing and being with prospective mates, a behaviour that is necessary to ensure maximum
trust between the birds (raising an albatross chick is a massive energetic investment,
and a long courting period establishes for both birds that the other is committed).

Nests are simple depressions scraped in the sand, into which one egg is laid.
The egg is incubated for just over two months (65 days).
Both birds incubate the egg, the male incubating more as the female leaves soon after hatching
to recoup reserves used for egg-laying. The average time spent on incubating shifts is 18 days.
However, mates can wait up to 38 days to be relieved, and if something happens to the mate
the other has been recorded incubating for 49 days without food or water.

The chick is brooded for 20 days by its parents, after which both parents leave the nest
and return to feed the chick.
The chick is fed regurgitated food by sticking its bill inside that of its parent.
Fledging occurs after 140 days.

A f Black-footed Albatross, Sand Island, Midway Atoll
Copyright ©2002 William H. Scholtz.

The Black-footed Albatross feeds in pelagic waters, taking fish, mostly the eggs of flying fish,
squid and to a lesser extent crustaceans.
It has been described as a 'floating pig' by one author for its habit of taking kitchen scraps from ships.
It will also consume floating debris, including plastics.

The Black-footed Albatross is considered endangered,
because it is taken incidentally by long-line fishing.
An estimated 4,000 are taken every year, based on the number taken in 1990;
other estimates put the number at 8,000.

It is also vulnerable to oil and ingestion of floating plastics,
which reduces the space in the stomach available for food to be brought to the chick.
Text above from http://en.wikipedia.org



   
Left: Feeding Laysan Albatross and Black-footed Albatross chicks
Right: Hybrid Laysan/Black-footed Albatross trying to dance with Laysan Albatrosses:
This bird looks closer to a Laysan but dances closer to a Black-footed. In any case it can't find a mate.
Although this hybrid combination is not common, it has been recorded many times.

Phoebastria nigripes breeds on the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (USA), the US Minor Outlying Islands and three outlying islands of Japan, colonies having been lost from other Pacific islands. In 2000, the population was estimated at 109,000 breeding birds (278,000 total) at 12 localities, including c.23,000 and 20,500 pairs on Laysan and Midway Islands, respectively. On Torishima, 20 chicks were reared in 1964, compared to 914 from 1,219 pairs in 19984. Monitoring data from three colonies in Hawaii, where over 75% of the world's population nests, suggests that numbers may have decreased by 9.6% from 1992 to 2001. Population models predict that under a moderate bycatch scenario (assuming 8,000 birds are taken Pacific-wide) this species will experience a 60% decrease in numbers over the next three generations if bycatch mortality is not reduced through mitigation measures over this time period. The species disperses widely over the north Pacific Ocean, with occasional records in the Southern Hemisphere ©IUCN 2004. 2004 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 9th April 2008.

Diomedea albatrus

Phoebastria albatrus

Steller's Albatross

Short Tailed Albatross

Goggle text:

19.500
871.000?

24.700
108.000

43.800
159.000

70.400
190.000

Google images:

286
6.430

251
4.350

757
39.700

14.700
75.600

New home found for albatrosses

A team of Japanese and U.S. researchers promoting the protection of the albatross,
an endangered seabird,
has selected the Ogasawara Islands as a potential new breeding ground for the birds.


http://www.demis.nl
Currently, Torishima in the Izu Islands is the nation's largest breeding ground for albatrosses,
but the team fears the site could be threatened by a volcanic eruption.
The albatrosses migrate between Torishima and Alaska and have been officially designated
an endangered species by the U.S. government, which is drawing up a plan
for the conservation of the species.

Japanese researchers have joined the movement as well,
last year setting up the Japan-U.S. albatross recovery team.

The Ogasawara Islands are under Tokyo's jurisdiction
and are located about 300 kilometers south of Torishima.
Albatrosses nested there untilthe 1930s.

But persuading the birds to return could be difficult.
Since it is not easy to transfer chicks from one breeding ground to another,
the team is researching ways to get the birds to switch islands of their own accord.

This could include increasing albatross numbers on Torishima
until overcrowding prompts the birds to seek a new home.

Existing albatross conservation efforts have been fruitful,
with anestimated 1,655 birds on Torishima as of April.

But after an eruption in August 2002, the team decided it was essential
to find an alternative location for the bird sanctuary.
Text from ©2004 The Yomiuri Shimbun

April 8, 2008:
Ten Short-tailed Albatross, Phoebastria albatrus, chicks have been moved by helicopter,
from their current stronghold on Torishima Island to the site of a former colony
350 km to the South-east.

The translocation site, Mukojima, part of Japan’s Bonin Islands, is non-volcanic.
Short-tailed Albatross bred here at least until the 1920s.

The ten chicks had reached the "post-guard" state, when parents leave them
alone for increasing periods, but were still some three months away from fledging.
The key assumption to this approach is that geographic imprinting on the
nesting island occurs after this time; chicks that fledge from a translocation site
will return to breed at their fledging site, not their hatching site.

September 11, 2011
Endangered Short-tailed Albatross Killed by Fishing Boat Off the Coast of Oregon
An endangered Short-tailed Albatross was killed by a longline fishing boat off the coast of Oregon in April 2011, according to a report recently released by the Pacific Fisheries Management Council. This is the first bycatch of a Short-tailed Albatross to be observed in the Pacific Northwest.
http://www.surfbirds.com/sbirdsnews/archives/2011/09/endangered_shor_1.html

Nov 02, 2011

For the years 2001-2010, chart indicates locations (brown dots) of all STAL during Sept to Nov.
Data were obtained from birds tagged with satellite transmitters from 2001-2010. The most recent take
(October 25, 2011) is depicted by a green star.
All other documented STAL takes in Alaska fisheries for 1983 to 2010 are depicted by red stars.
The world population of the endangered short-tailed albatross is currently estimated at about 3,500 individuals.
This is the first take in the two-year period that began on September 16, 2011.
Credits: Yamashina Institute for Ornithology, Oregon State University, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Ministry of Environment Japan.

An endangered short-tailed albatross, one of the world’s rarest birds, was accidentally killed last week in the hook-and-line commercial long-line cod fishery in the Bering Sea, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service in Alaska.

The bird died Oct. 25. A leg band identified it as less than 2 years old and from a breeding colony in Japan. Torishima and Minami-kojima islands in Japan are the only active breeding colonies in the world, although single nests have been found at other sites, including Midway Island.

The worldwide short-tailed albatross population, once numbering the millions, is down to some 3,500 birds, according to Kim Rivera, the national seabird coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries.
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/endangered-albatross-killed-alaska-commercial-long-liner

April 20th, 2012
It is reported that 10 Short-tailed Albatrosses have showed up on several Hawaiian Islands recently.
This also found place during the breeding season, which is most extraordinary.
Three birds have also been seen recently on Kure Atoll, 5 on Midway Island, one on Laysan Island
and one on Tern Island.
On Midway the same pair of birds had successfull breeding efforts both in 2011 and 2012.