Albatross

While wildlife, flora and fauna has always fascinated me, I have some favorite animals and plants, so some of my lenses will be about those highlights. The Albatross, the World's largest living bird, is such a fascinating encounter for me. Remarkably monogamous and faithful throughout their life-span, these birds need high cliffs to live on where landing and taking off can be accomplished by intelligent manipulation of winds and heights. That they are also one of the cutest birds you may have ever seen? Well, that comes with the territory! Enjoy the information, and the video clip below! The narration is in German (actually, Switsch, which is Swiss German and a mixture of the two words Deutsch and Swiss). I wasn't able to find a similarly comprehensive and well shot video clip with English narration, but if you can, please let me know! Check out the books etc., offered here for the interested reader!

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Today I was thinking about this fantastic, free diving bird with a smile on its face: Albatross. And, I am wondering why are albatrosses smiling? They have meant, historically, so much for sailors throughout the centuries, as they have been considered a good omen, when they settled down on the ship mast.

The following information is a direct quote from ecuador.travel.net:

"Albatrosses are large and heavy boned seabirds with long and narrow wings. They belong to the family of Diomedeidae in the order of Procellariiformes. They are related to the petrels, shearwaters and storm petrels, sharing tube-nosed bills with them. There are 14 species of albatrosses worldwide, found over all oceans but most species are concentrated in the southern hemisphere. In Ecuador one specie, the Waved Albatross, breeds exclusively on Galapagos in large colonies and is featured on this page. Other albatrosses are occasional seen in the Galapagos and along the Pacific coast as they are highly pelagic birds. One visitant which is recorded on the southwest Pacific coast is the Black-Browed Albatross. All albatrosses possess a long and hooked bill which is composed of horny plates with a separate tubular and external nostril on both sides, which are used to secrete excess salt. Waved Albatross measure up to 86cm and can weigh up to 5kg with a wingspan of 2.40m. Their bodies are compact with short tails and legs and webbed feet.

Albatrosses are pelagic birds flying long distances over open waters without touching land for many days or even months. It is known that some Royal Albatrosses circle annually the entire globe over the southern oceans and our Waved Albatross ranges in the Pacific from Peru to Panama. Long and narrow wings giving them a high aspect ratio lets them do that. Wandering Albatrosses have a 3.7m wingspan, longest among all birds in the world. Their preferred food is squid but they also take fish and crustaceans snatching them from the water surface or just below it. They often feed sitting on the water making shallow dives rather than in flight. They are scavengers feeding on carcasses of dead whales and seals and are known to pick up any floating items including human garbage like plastics and so on. 12 000 pairs of Waved Albatrosses breed annually on Española island in the Galapagos from April to June (a few breed on Isla de la Plata) and stay there till December feeding their young till it is ready to leave the nest." [End of direct quote]

Albatrosses are known for their elaborate courtship displays, that includes often 20 minutes of bill clicking and circling, bowing, swaying, and whistling.

Waved Albatrosses are monogamous birds living together with one (1) partner their whole life. The female lays one large egg (up to half kilo or quarter of a lb heavy) directly on the ground with the male helping incubating the egg. After the chick hatches heavily downed and helpless, both parents take turns in caring for it. The food they bring is partly digested prey. The young chick stays with its parents until it learned to fly which may take up to 6 months. Many Albatross pairs only breed every second year. In case an egg breaks, no second attempt is made that year for procreation.

Being such large and heavy bodied bird and thus having a very heavy wing-load, it is not easy for the Albatross to land and to take off. One reason why the waved albatrosses breed on Española is that it offers flat and high cliffs. The Albatrosses march in file to the edge of the cliff and spreading their wings drop off head first from the higher lying surface.

Albatrosses live long (one record shows a 66 year old Royal Albatross) but some species are nevertheless in danger of extinction. (Waved Albatross is not endangered). The main problem is the fishing industry: many birds get trapped in fishing nets (it is calculated that approximately one million sea birds die that way annually). Many birds have high level of toxins in their system because of scavenging on polluted food sources. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Albatross was hunted for the fine plumes to supply the textile industry. I wager to say that collision with various air-crafts may also contribute to the decimation of this majestic bird.

In the following video by a Swiss researcher Ruedi Abbuehl (who flew from Zurich to Santiago de Chile to film this) you will see how these birds court each-other, how they build a nest together (about 40 cm high, made of mud) and some other birds will be visible, such as the Konigspenguin, and other Penguins and such. Pay close attention to the rare photography of the Albatross feeding not only her own chick, but one orphaned baby as well! According to the narrative, the mother bird gives off altogether 29 portions of food, 14 going to her own chick and 15 to the orphaned baby! This is most unusual, as the majority of wild birds stop feeding orphaned babies - as cruel as it sounds, as a method of natural selection. However, the Albatross is an exception to this rule. The researcher also finds himself amazed by the calm and loving nature of these birds, and notes, when the parent birds come back, they don't immediately start the feeding, but first give some tender loving care to the baby! Enjoy the film!