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Laysan Albatross | Phoebastria immutabilis
Laysanalbatros | Albatros de Laysan
The Laysan Albatross is a medium-sized albatross with a white head and underside and a dark upperwing, which spends almost its whole life on the open North Pacific. Most birds breed in the North-western Hawaiian Islands, but since the 1980s the species has also settled on Mexican islands. In the guide area it breeds on Isla Guadalupe off Baja California and in the Revillagigedo Islands.
Voice
Silent at sea. At the colony an elaborate courtship dance with groaning, whistling and mewing calls, bill-clapping and a loud, donkey-like braying.
Recording: Percy Ulsamer — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
79–81 cm. A large seabird with long, narrow, straight wings and a heavy, hooked bill. Head, neck, rump and underside are white, with a dark patch around the eye. Mantle, upperwing and tail are dark blackish-brown. The underwing is white with a broad, irregular dark margin and variable dark patches on the inner wing. The bill is pink to greyish pink with a dark tip; the legs are flesh-coloured and project slightly beyond the tail in flight. Male and female are alike, and juveniles resemble adults. Glides on stiff wings in low arcs over the waves and rarely flaps.
Confusion species
The Black-footed Albatross Phoebastria nigripes is entirely dark grey-brown, with a white base to the bill and a white patch below the eye. The Short-tailed Albatross Phoebastria albatrus, a very rare visitor, is larger, with a large pink bill and, in adults, a white back and a yellowish head. Hybrids between Laysan and Black-footed Albatross occur and show intermediate features. Large gulls such as the Western Gull Larus occidentalis have shorter, broader wings and a shorter bill, and fly with many more wingbeats.
Habitat
Open sea, especially over deep water far offshore; sometimes follows ships. Feeds mainly on squid, fish eggs and fish, taken at the surface at night. Breeds on remote oceanic islands, on open ground with low vegetation or on bare soil, in loose colonies. The single egg is incubated for about two months, and the chick leaves the nest after five to six months.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
Breeds on Isla Guadalupe off the Pacific coast of Baja California, where the colony has grown since the 1980s, and in the Revillagigedo Islands (Clarión and San Benedicto). Outside the breeding season and as non-breeding birds scarce on the open sea off the Pacific coast of Baja California and Baja California Sur; rare elsewhere in the guide area. Outside the guide area it breeds mainly in the North-western Hawaiian Islands, with the largest colony on Midway, and on a few islands off Japan, and ranges across the North Pacific to the Bering Sea.
- Winter visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
The breeding colonies can only be visited with a permit or seen from the sea during pelagic trips. Pelagic trips off Baja California in winter and spring give the best chance of birds at sea. The white head and underside with the dark upperwing separate the species from the Black-footed Albatross.
Conservation status
Near Threatened. The global population is large but threatened by bycatch in longline fisheries, ingestion of plastic fed to the chicks with food, and rising sea levels and storm surges on the low Hawaiian breeding islands. On Isla Guadalupe feral goats have been removed and cats are controlled, which benefits the colony.
Scientific name
Phoebastria immutabilis | (Rothschild, 1893)
Rothschild described the species in 1893 as Diomedea immutabilis; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Phoebastria was introduced in 1853 by Reichenbach. Phoebastria is Greek, from phoibastria 'prophetess'. immutabilis is Latin for 'unchanging', because immature birds already wear almost the same plumage as adults. The specimen the first description was based on came from Laysan Island, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.