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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Which albatross? Kaikoura NZ (1 Viewer)

Rob is there a good web resource with details of how to separate these 3+ forms (3+ if we include Amsterdam etc)

Not that I'm aware of but I'll try to look tonight.

It's covered well in the Australian bird guide, Steve Howells new seabird book and Only and Schofield, also, there are some interesting threads on the Australian seabirds group on Facebook. If I can find something online I'll post a link here. In the meantime I can post some photos with descriptions which may help.
 
Attached are three photos, Northern royal, Southern royal and Wandering albatross presumed exulans.

The Northern royal is an immature bird, nice fresh plumage and a few black feathers on its back. The black cutting edge is obvious on this birds bill and the tail is virtually all black, immature birds can have a few dark feathers.

The Southern royal also has a clear cutting edge to the bill and a virtually pure white tail, I can see a couple of spots of black in the tail of this bird.

The wings on these birds are very different, the northern is solidly black all the way to the leading edge of the wing while the souhtern has many white fringed or frosted feathers, more on the leading edge of the wing with a dark trailing edge. Adult Southern's get whiter wings starting on the leading edge while Northern royals always have dark wings.

The 3rd bird is a Wandering albatross which looks good for exulans. You can distinguish this bird from either Royals by the vermiculated feathering on the back and chest which should be clean white on the Royals, dark feathering in the tail and the orange cresent behind the eye. Also, although the wings look superficially similar to Southern royal a wanderers wings never look as neat as a Southern royal. This birds bill lacks any trace of a dark cutting edge and for a wanderer its a pretty large bill which is consistent with exulans.

I'll try and dig out some more photos tomorrow.

Rob
 

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Am I right that your description is in reverse order to the photos?



black > white?

No they're in order. I think "virtually all black" should be understood in the context of these birds in particular: I.e. somewhat subtle. The orange on the last is presumably the retained remnants of the juvenile ginger plumage
 
No they're in order. I think "virtually all black" should be understood in the context of these birds in particular: I.e. somewhat subtle. The orange on the last is presumably the retained remnants of the juvenile ginger plumage

Yes, I seem to have looked at these photos in the order on opening in the browser, in which case they end up in reverse order to the posting. Apologies.

But I still think I'm right about black > white for the Northern. 'Virtually all' means just that, not 'subtle', and the tail is virtually all white with a few hints of black, unlike the Southern which is all white, and the third bird which has a bit more obvious black.
 
Perhaps just piling on here but I don't see anything to rule out Gibson's. Antipodean would have cap and breast marking as mentioned. Snowy is the only other real possibility. Amsterdam is handily ruled out on plumage and as well is vanishingly rare - it would take a spectacular amount of confidence to claim Amsterdam away from the breeding island.
 
Yes, I seem to have looked at these photos in the order on opening in the browser, in which case they end up in reverse order to the posting. Apologies.

But I still think I'm right about black > white for the Northern. 'Virtually all' means just that, not 'subtle', and the tail is virtually all white with a few hints of black, unlike the Southern which is all white, and the third bird which has a bit more obvious black.

Sorry! That was meant to be tail is virtually all white! Adults have a pure white tail while young birds have a few black feathers which they lose as they get older.
 
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