Juv. Thalassarche Albatross- NSW south coast, Australia (1 Viewer)

Hello all,

Today I photographed this interesting bird during a two hour sea watching trip.

It was seen alongside adult Black-browed Albatross and compared to them it was slightly smaller and perhaps a little more compact. Flight action was intermediate between that of Black-browed and Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross.

Based on the dark underwing and beak pattern I believe this bird to either be an oddly patterned 3rd year Black-browed or a 3 rd year Grey-headed.

In addition to ~60 BB albatross and this bird, there was 1 Shy Albatross, 2 Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross, 2 Giant Petrel sp, 1 Fluttering Shearwater and 1,000ds of Prions too far out at sea to identify.

I have more pictures of the bird (it was about 1 k from shore) and I've just altered the exposure and noise from the images. I have more images but they don't show anything more.

Any help is appreciated.

D.

For the benefit of those checking this thread:
Looks to me like Black-browed, bill shape and colour the best indicator - to me the shape looks better for Black-browed as does the dark tip with extensive pale on the rest of it

Hi Dimitris,

I agree with John that this is a young Black-browed Albatross. The bill colour of this bird is horn coloured with a dark tip, young Grey-headed should have a much darker bill that gets lighter in the parts that are yellow on an adult bird. The bill of a Grey-headed is also pinched in the middle when looking side on, you need good looks but its quite different to Black-browed when you have seen them both well. The head is also too white on your bird, Grey-headed often have prominent white cheeks and the rest of the head is a smokey grey but rearly a head as white as your bird. Head shape is also something to consider, Grey-headed have a compact head compared to Black-browed and often hold theirs bills down as they fly.

A few photos of a young Grey-headed Albatross can be seen here.

http://www.pbase.com/rob_hynson/grey-headed_albatross

Cheers,

Rob

Hi Dimitris,

I think that this bird is a second year (underwing pattern more typical of that age) or third year (bill colour/pattern) Black-browed Albatross.
A 2nd year Grey-headed Albatross should have a blackish bill or greyish bill with a black tip. A 3rd year Grey-headed Albatross should show first traces of the adult bill pattern. The yellowish horn colour is to my understanding way to broad to reflect the pattern of an adult Grey-headed Albatross. It looks like that not only the culminicorn but also parts of the ramicorn and the nostrils are horn coloured.
The plumage that Rob describes for a "young" Grey-headed Albatross is actually the description for a juvenile. Juvenile and adult Grey-headed Albatross are easy to identify. The difficult ones are the 2nd and 3rd year ones, which can have much paler heads. But - as stated above - a 3rd year Grey-headed Albatross should show first traces of the adult bill pattern.

I agree with Rob, that bill and head shape are important for ID too.

If it was a 3rd year Campbell Albatross it should already have amber eyes and a more pronounced eye brow than a Black-brow of the same age. Looking at the eye brow of your bird, I'd say Black-brow rather than Campbell. The eye colour at close range and good light would certainly help. The 'hairy armpits' are only useful in older subadult and in adult birds.

Looking forward to others' comments!

Cheers,

Nikolas

P.S. Here is a grey-headed Black-browed Albatross that Raja photographed last Saturday off Sydney (from the Halicat) posted on the SOSSA website forum::
http://www.sossa-international.org/...y-headed-Black-browed-Albatross&p=290#post290