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Home , Albatross, Fulmar, Mollymawk, Phoebetria, Procellariiformes, Sooty albatross

Identification in the North Atlantic JohnWarham, 1W. R. P. Bourne2 and H. F. I. Elliott

PREFACE Recentsightings of albatrossesin the North Atlantic andthe increasinginterest in observingbirds at ,have emphasized the needfor a readily-availabletreatment of the field charactersof thisgroup of . A very usefulpaper onAIbatross Identification in the North Atlantic, publishedinBritish Birds, in 1966 by Warham, Bourne and Elliott is here republishedvirtually unchanged,with the special permissionof British Birds, along with an addendumby Warham and Bourne to bring the material up-to-date.This addendumis entitledAdditional Notes on AlbatrossIdentification, which presents furtherinformation on immatureplumages, on Buller's albatross(not mentioned in the originalpaper), the two speciesof Giant Petrelsand certainmisleading discussions to be found in the literature, and on mollymawksin the North Pacific, which indicatescritical pointsfor distinguishingpossible southern vagrantsfrom the three residentspecies. --Jeremy Hatch, Biology Dept., University of Massachusetts,, Mass. 02156

INTRODUCTION the southemhemisphere where they breed. For Most textbook descriptionsof albatrossesare completeness we are also including the two basedon the study of skins in museumsand con- 'great' , the Wandering D. exulans centrateon usefulcharacters for identifyingbirds (one specimenrecord in the Mediterranean) and m the hand, such as measurementsand the bill the Royal D. epomophora (one very doubtful characters illustrated on page 493 of Murphy record in Morocco); the two '' alba- (1936). As the growing interest in watchingbirds trosses, the Sooty Phoebetria fusca and the at sea produces more frequent reports of alba- Light-mantled Sooty or Grey-mantled P trossesin our area, especiallyyoung ones in dif- palpebrata (neitherrecorded with any certainty ficult ,characters which are more easily and, althoughthe formeris morelikely, the only records are based on the misidentification of distinguishedat a distance are tending to assume palpebrata specimensof doubtful origin); and the greaterimportance and theseneed to be properly albatross-sized Giant Macronectes understood if the birds are to be identified from brief glimpses. It therefore seemstimely to at- giganteus (seen in the North Pacific). Other tempt to clarify and summarisethe available in- speciesare very unlikely indeed. formation on the field-characters of the albatross GENERAL CHARACTERS specieswhich are known or likely to visit the North Atlantic. Further information, with ac- Albatrossesin flight may be readily recogmsed countsof the other ,will be found in Alex- by their large size, all being appreciablylarger ander (1955), Moreland (1957), Murphy (1936) than a Sula bassana (wingspan5 feet 8 and Palmer (1962), and in the referencescited by inches). The combination of very long, narrow the last two. Elsewhere (Ibis 1967) Boume pre- wingswith a powerfulgliding flight is alsodistinc- senteda fuller discussionof long-distancevag- tive. In a wind the wings are held stiffly and are rancy in the Procellariiformesand reviewed all beatenonly occasionallywithout normallybeing records. raised above the level of the body, though they On present information, the albatrosseswhich are flexed at the carpaljoints and twisted to take require most serious consideration in the North advantageof air currents. In gales they may be Atlantic are the Black-browed Diomedea raked back steeplyfrom the carpaljoint. In calms melanophris(six specimenrecords in the north or fog albatrosses often settle on the sea where and east), the Yellow-nosed D. chlororhynchos they ride very buoyantlyand appearmuch larger (three specimenrecords in the south and west), than or Great Black-backed the Shy D. cauta (one specimenrecord in the marinus near-by. North Pacific) and the Grey-headed D. •Zoology Dept., University of Canterbury, Christ- chrysostoma(several specimens in both , church 1, . but of doubtfulorigin). These are all very similar, 2Dept. of Zoology,University of Aberdeen,Aberdeen, medium-sizedspecies known as ''in AB9 2TN.

Volume 28, Number 3 585 The speciesknown to have reached the North ence or absence of a white mark just be- Atlantic or likely to do so unaided can be divided hind and below the eye. into three groupsaccording to the colour of their (d) In adults at close quarters, the colour of upper-parts. Of these it is the mollymawks in the mantle. group A which posethe real problemsof identifi- (e) Once comparative experience has been cation, while the members of groups B and C are gained, the shape and build of the lesslikely to be met and will usuallybe easilytold apart: Of these five key points, (a) is probably the A. Large, wingspan 6-8 feet, with the body most important, since it is the most likely to be white but the upper-wing and mantle visibleat a distance,though a studyof fresh and wholly dark, making a complete dark relaxed museum material and of photographs band from wing-tip to wing-tip like a suggeststhat much allowance must be made for Great Black-backed , but with a ageand individual variation and the effectof light white rump and dark tail (Black-browed, and angle of view. However, it shouldenable the Yellow-nosed, Shy and Grey-headed Al- bird to be assignedto one of three groups: batrosses, or mollymawks). (1) Under-wing with awhite central area not B. Extremely large, wingspan about 9« very clearly marked off from the dark feet, and relatively long in the wing but tips, and dark marginswhich are quite short in the tail, with dark extremities to broad anteriorly but narrower pos- the upper-wing which do not meet across teriorly; someimmatures have little more the white body, or, if they do, with much than a pale central area which may be dark on the body as well (Wandering and hard to seein shadow(Black-browed and Royal, or 'great', Albatrosses). Grey-headed Albatrosses). C. Large, wingspan about 6« feet, with (2) Under-wing with a large central area of wings and body brown to grey-brown white sharplymarked off from a dark tip both above and below (Sooty and and well-defined dark marginswhich are Light-mantled Sooty, or 'phoebetria', a little wider in front than behind Albatrossesand dark phaseGiant Petrel). (Yellow-nosed Albatross). (3) Under-wing wholly white except for a GROUP A: THE MOLLYMAWKS black tip and very narrow black margins (). The identification of mollymawks is compli- cated by our incomplete knowledge of the se- Black-browed and Grey-headed Albatrosses quence and characters of the immature plum- These sham much the same nesting islands in ages. Unfortunately it is the iramatureswhich are the far south, but, whereas the Grey-headed seen most often in our area, although adults also tends merely to disperse at sea in the same appear, and most of those collected have been latitudes in winter, the Black-browed migrates nearly or entirely adult by the time they came to north strongly to feed over the southern conti- grief. Members of the group are easily recognised nental shelves. It follows that we are much more by the dark back and tail', thoughthe latter may be likely to see the latter than the former; indeed, inconspicuousagainst the dark sea and is often none of the northern records of the Grey-headed omitted from descriptions.Adults usually have Albatross stands up to detailed scrutiny. Should bright, contrastingbill markingsand pure colours the Grey-headed occur, the adults of the two on the head and back which vary in shade with species are readily separable under ordinary the species, while young birds are usually drab- viewing conditions, but the youngestimmatures ber with less well-defined markings. The follow- are not and present the most important cause of •ng are the critical details to look for: doubt in the identification of recent descriptions, (a) The amount and distribution of white on often resolvable only by the consideration of the under-wing, its width, and whether it geographical probabilities, since Grey-headed is clearly demarcated from the dark wing Albarosses are so very unlikely in the north margins. Unfortunately there are few specimens of the (b) The general and, if possible,the detailed critical age-group in museums, because fully- colour of the bill, and its shape in relation feathered fledglingshave seldom beencollected to the head. The most useful sources of information we have (c) The amount of grey on the heador nape, if traced are a report of beached birds in South any; the extent of the dark patch round by Condon (1936) and an account of the eye and whether this confers a 'beet- observations in the by Falla (1937), ling' aspect to the brows; and the pres- which we have supplemented by examining

586 American Birds, June 1974 series of skins in the Canterbury Museum, New white centreto the under-wing.The charactersof Zealand, and the British Museum (Natural His- the mollymawks may therefore be summafisedas tory), where Graham Cowles has also relaxed follows. some wings to show the under-sides(plate 00). It appears that in their first both Black-browed Albatross (plates I-3) speciesare grey above, including the crown and This is one of the larger mollymawks, with a hind-neck, with the bill more or less dark, the wingspan of just over 7 feet and a short, thick under-partswhite, and the under-wing pale in the neck that gives the bird a humped look. The back centre with a dark tip and broad, dark margins. of the adult is a slightlydarker grey than in most The Black-browed Albatross tends to be greyer other species,and the under-winghas a small to with slightly more contrast, and the Grey-headed quite large white central stripe with broad and browner above, but the difference is not great and somewhat ill-defined brownish-black margins, there is a good deal of individual variation. Con- wider in front, the white tending to merge with don reported that the young Grey-headed has the marginsmost towards the wing-tip. The head more and darker grey on the head than the young is wholly white except for a dark patch before, Black-browed; skins confirm this and also sug- above and behind the eye-socket, presentto a gest that the Grey-headed always has the bill varying extent in most mollymawks, but tending uniformly dark except on the ridge, whereas the to give this speciesa 'frowning' look. The bill ix young Black-browed has it greyish-horn with a yellow or orange-yellowwith a pink tip; it is swol- darker tip. It is debatable to what extent these len at the baseand taperstowards the tip, sothat things could be distinguishedat sea, but see figs. it doesnot appeardisproportionate compared to I and 2. the head. After the first year the two species diverge Iramatures are duller, with the top of the head progressively in appearance. The head of the and neck grey at first, though this soon wears, Black-browed becomes white and the bill pro- fades or is moulted to white, accordingto Miss gressivelyyellower from the base, while the head M. Courteney-Latimer, leaving the lower neck of the Grey-headed remains grey and the bill bluish-grey. The under-wing at first has little stays black but develops a yellow margin above white whichtends to mergewith the dark tips and and below. Both now begin to show a distinct margins, though the central white stripe soon

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...... - :y .• • .k,• wr••, -• • •?•c•?• • ...... F•G. I. Head of immature Black-browed AlbatrossDiomedea melanophris. The feathem are white dusted with greyish at their ends above and on the shoulders, creating a rather nondescript mottled effect which wears to white as the ends fade •d are lost. The bill has brownish-hornlateral plates with a blackish- brown nail •hoto: John Warham).

Volume 28, Number 3 587 becomes prominent. The bill is blackish-grey, frowning aspect. The bill is glossy black, broadly soon developing horn-coloured patches on the edged above and below with orange or yellow, lateral plates, and the tip is darker. As the bird and tipped with orange-pink. matures, the base becomes yellow and in most The immature has the head a darker grey than sub-adults seen at sea the bill is yellow with a in the Black-browed according to Condon in Aus- dark tip, the last signof immaturity. The shapeof tralia, though W. L. N. Tickell considersthe tone the bird and its bill should be distinctive at any lighter than in the adult, while A. Y. Norris states age. that the whole head appears brownish-grey to Grey-headed Albatross (plate a) dull grey where it meets and is sharply differen- This is a medium-sized of average tiated from the white on the throat and breast, in build with a wingspanof about 7 feet. The back is which respectit is quite distinct from someyoung a slightly paler grey than in the Black-browed. In Black-browed, in which the grey blendswith the some adults seen in life the under-wing resem- white. j The bill is'grey-black and comparatively bled that of many Black-broweds. with a broad short, becoming narrowly horn-coloured and central area of white, not too sharply marked off then yellowish above and below as the bird ma- from brownish-black margins which were tures. In skins the under-wing is'very like that of broader along the leading edge outward to the the young Black-browed; Condon reported that carpal joint, and narrower along the trailing in beached birds it appeareddark with a narrow edge. However, R. O. Morris tells us that he central white band. thinks that the white is normally more extensive Yellow-nosedAlbatross (plates 4b-5a) with less well-defined margins and extends This is a rather small, lightly-built mollymawk further back behind the central axis of the wing with a wingspanof 6-63• feet. In adultsthe head is' than in the Black-browed. The head, nape and very pale grey, looking white at a distance, and face are grey, with a white mark just below and the dark around the eye usually give the behind the eye which can often be seen at close appearance of a small triangular patch pointing range even in birds in flight. There are dark feath- downwards. The mantle is of about the same ers in the eye socket, but these do not confer a shade as that of the Black-browed Albatross. The

FIG. 2. Head of immature Grey-headed Albatross Diomedea chrysostoma. The entirehead and throat is solidgrey, almostbluish; this is sharplyseparated from the white of the upper breast(just visible here) and does not get paler with time. The bill is dark horny grey-brownall over, with the ramicom alittle brownerand the centre of the ridge of the culmen mottled pale horn for the proximal two centimetres. A faint light crescent behind the eye may be more prominent in life (photo: John Warham).

588 American Birds, June 1974 PLATE 1. Adult Black-browed Albatross Diomedea melanophris. Note the short, thick neck. The white body and rump, grey tail, and grey mantle between sooty- brown wings are typical of the 'mollymawks' (photo: John Warham).

Volume 28, Number 3 589 PLATE2. Adult Black-browedAlbatross Diomedea melanophrisfrom below. The under-wingsare broadly marginedwith blackishalong the anterior edge and rather narrowly so along the posterior edge: the strip of white down the centre is less sharply defined, or sometimes even absent, in immature birds (photo: John Warham).

590 American Birds, June 1974 PLATE 3. Under-wings of Blackobrowed(upper) and Grey-headed Albatrosses Diomedea melanophris and chrvsostoma. adults on left and iramatureson right. to showage variation and the sin{ilarity between the species. These iramatures may vary individually, and melanophris can be darker and chrysostomalighter than in the examples shown (photo: Dept. of Photography, British Museum, Natural History).

Volume 28, Number 3 591 PkATE4.Adult Grey-headed Albatross Diotnedea chrysostom•t with under-wing as Black-browed,but headblue-grey with whitebehind the eye (photo:John Warham).Below, adult Yellow-nosed Albatross D. ehlororhynchoswithyellow- ridgedblack and sharp black edges to under-wing(photos: R.N.B.W.S. and Patrice Paulian).

592 AmericanBirds, June 1974 PLATE 5. Immature Yellow-nosed Albatross Diomedea chlororhynchoswith the bill startingto lighten along the ridge; note the characteristicalbatross shape on water (photo: V. N. Serventy). Below, adult Shy AlbatrossD. cauta showingthe deep-basedbill and narrow black edgesto the under-wing(photo: Patrice PaulJan).

Volume 28, Number 3 593 PLATE 6. Immature Diomedea exulans; note the short tail. The fact that thisbird still hasdark tips to the tail-feathersexcludes the possibilityof a Royal AlbatrossD. epomophora(which likewise hasa white body and, in the race sanfordi, similarly dark-basedupper-wings) (photo: R.N.B. W.S.)

594 AmericanBirds, June 1974 PLATE7. Near-adult WanderingAlbatross Diomedea exulans with brown suffu- sion on breast, black in tail and under-wingtypical of both the 'great' albatrosses (photo:John Warham). Below, adult showingthe heavy pale bill; some, females especially, have brown flecks on the crown (photo: N.S.W. Albatross Stud.v Group).

Volume 28, Number 3 _595 PLATE 8. Adult Light-mantled Phoebetria palpebrata with the silhouettetypical of this ;note the dark bill with the blue groove and the white crescent behind the eye. Below, Macronectes giganteus, which is albatross-sizedbut with stumpier body and shorter wings (photos:John Warham).

596 American Birds, June 1974 under-wing has much more white than that of dark feathers in the tail. The northern popula- etther of the previous two species,though there is tions often start to breed before all traces of the still a fairly broad dark anterior margin. The bill is immature plumage have been lost, and while Im- black with a yellow stripe along the ridge of the mature feathers remain they are instantly recog- upper mandible and a pinkishtip; it has a narrow nisable as Wandering Albatrosses as the Royal baseand broad tip with relatively little taper, and has no immature plumage. Warham thinks that it looks rather long and gives the head a top-heavy appearance (Fig. 5a). Royal Albatross Immatures are very similar, with a pure white This speciesresembles extreme adult Wander- head and black bill, which is quite slenderat first, ing Albatrossesat all ages exceptfor the black but becomes more massive with a horn and then cutting edge of the upper mandible. However, yellow line on the ridge as the bird matures. the northern race sanfordi has an almost entirely dark upper-wingand a white body, a combination Shy Albatross (Fig. 5b) not found in the Wandering Albatross, so confu- This is the largest of the mollymawks, and is sion may be avoided there. The speciesbreeds in rather thick-bodied and broad-winged, with a lower latitudesthan the Wandering Albatrossand wingspanof 8 feet. It has agrey head, and in the app.earsto migrate east and west while the other southern adults a white crown contrasting with moves north and south, so that it is compara- the shading in the eye-socket; hence the Aus- tively unlikely to turn up north of the , tralian name 'White-capped Albatross'. The but it should be borne in mind. mantle is medium grey, much like that of the Grey-headed, and the distinctive under-wing en- GROUP C: THE 'PHOEBETRIA' ttrely white except for very narrow dark margins ALBATROSSES AND THE GIANT PETREL and a black tip. The bill is deep at the base with pale blue-grey lateralplates runningup in front of The very southerly Light-mantled Sooty Al- the eye and set off by a dark line extendingdown batrosshas a range like that of the Grey-headed, and back in a horseshoe behind the nostrils. In and several northern records are untenable Its the adult there is a yellow line above and below northern representative, the Sooty Albatross, shadinginto orange at the tip, but young birds has a range like that of the Yellow-nosed and may have the whole bill grey or olive. Otherwise, seemsabout equally likely to occur north of the apparently, immatures are much like adults. Equator, though it has not been recorded yet except in error for the Light-mantled Sooty. If it GROUP B: THE 'GREAT' ALBATROSSES did occur there would be a strongpossibility of confusion with the young of the Giant Petrel, a These birds can hardly be mistaken for any- species which breeds in the south and migrates thing else, with a wingspan of 9-1Ofeet and short north strongly, so that is it is also likely to cross tatIs which give them a 'stumpy' look; a charac- the Equator sooneror later in the Atlantic as well teristic white under-wing with a dark tip and nar- as the Pacific. row trailing edge; and a massive pink bill. The 'Phoebetria' albatrosses have long, cigar- birds most likely to appear in the northern hemi- shaped bodies which appear pointed at both ends sphere, young Wandering Albatrosses, have a becausethe wedge-shapedtail is normally held distinctive juvenile plumage. Older Wandering closed. They are the most graceful and compe- Albatrossesare hard to tell from the typical race tent of all albatrosseson the wing. The Sooty of the Royal Albatross, which however has a Albatross is dark brown all over, with the head narrow dark cutting edge to the upper mandible. darker still, though the wing feathers are glossy so that the dark under-wingmay reflect light as Wandering Albatross (plates 6-7) the bird banks away from an observer with the In the southern populationsthe extreme form light behind him. The bill is glossy black with a of adult is wholly white exceptfor dark endsto the yellow groove along the lower mandible and an wings and a dark line alongthe rear marginof the incompletewhite ring round the eye is prominent under-wings. The massive bill is very pale flesh, at close quarters. The Light-mantled Sooty Al- almost white. On fledging, immatures have batross(plate 8a) is similar with a grey back and a brown bodies and upper-wings, but their faces blue, not yellow, groove in the lower mandible are white, and their bills and under-wings as in The youngSooty has a dark bill and may be paler the adult. With increasingage, the brown of the on the back, while the young Light-mantled body is gradually replaced by white and the basal Sooty may be darker; indeed, Learmonth (1960) region of the upper-wing becomes paler, until reported that it may be impossibleto tell imma- finally there is only a dark patchon the breastand tures of the two speciesapart even in the hand

Volume 28, Number 3 597 The possibilityof the occurrenceof the Giant History) for facilities for studying the albatross Petrel (plate 8b), a hugefulmar the she of an material in their care, and most especially albatross with a fan-shaped tail and a distinctive Graham Cowles, who relaxed wings to show the ma•s'ive pale bill, has only to be considered to pattern of the under-sides.1 preventconfusion. Apart from an all-whitephase m the far south, adults are grey-brown with paler REFERENCES heads, while the iramatures which migrate north Alexander, W.B. ( 1955):Birds' of the . New York are dark brown and could be mistaken for Sooty and London. 2nd edition. Albatrosses. Bourne, W.R.P. (1967). Long-distancevagrancy in the ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . Ibis 109:141-167. Condon,H.T. (1936):'Notes on the albatrossesoccur- We are most gratefulfor help with information ring in south Australian waters'. S. Austr. Orn, or photographs from Miss M. Courteney- 13:141-161. Latimer, R.H. Green, R.O. Morris, A.Y. Norris, Falla, R.A. (1937): Birds' in Rep. Brit. Austr. N.Z. An- tarctic Research Exped., ser. B, 2: 1-288. Patrice Paulian, D.L. Serventy, V.N. Serventy, Learmonth,N.F. (1960): 'Sea birdsof Portland,Aus- W L.N. Tickell, the New South Wales Albatross tralia'. Emu, 60: 103-107. StudyGroup, and the RoyalNaval Bird Watch- Murphy, R.C. (1936):Oceanic Birds oœSouthAmerica •ng Society. We should like to thank the officers New York. of the Canterbury Museum, New Zealand, and of Palmer,R.S., ed. (1962):Handbook oœNorthAmerican the Bird Room at the British Museum (Natural Birds. Yale. vol. I.

Additional Notes on Albatross Identification by JohnWarham and W. R. P. Bourne

Since the discussion of albatross identification rare speciesin British Birds and in the Irish Btrd by Warham et al. (1966) reprinted above was Report), with two in the Caribbean at 14ø03'N written, a number of field guidesof very variable 66ø31'W on 6 May 1968 (de Bruijne 1970) and qualilty have dealt with albatrossesamong other again off the east coast of the United States on speciesof the tropical Atlantic (Watson 1966), various dates in the summer of 1972 (DuMont tropical Pacific (King 1967), New Zealand (Falla 1973). One even visited the gannetryon the Bass et al., 1966), Australia (Slater 1970) and South Rock off the east coast of Scotland for three Africa (Prozesky 1970), while Serventy et al. summersfrom 1967to 1969(Waterston 1968), but (1971) have publisheda fuller account of Aus- it was frequently disturbed and eventually went trahan seabirdsillustrated with photographs.Be- away. McDaniel (1973) also lists four occur- tween them these cover most of the southern rences of Yellow-nosed Albatrosses (Diomedea seabirdswhich have wandered north, and Falla et chlororhynchos) off eastern North America in the al (1966), Slater (1970) and Serventy et al. (1971) period 1970-1972, and speculateson why there also illustrate the distinctive characters of the should suddenly have been an increase in albat- bdls of the southern albatrosses which, it is ross records. We suggestthat it may partly be perhaps worth emphasizing,are the best means becausemore people are now interestedin them, of telling them apart in the hand, though less and partly becausethey are now lesslikely to be useful at sea; some of these are also figured by shot than in the past, so that birds which pene- Murphy (1936), while Palmer (1962) deals with trate the northern hemisphere as migratory the North Pacific speciesas well. juveniles are now more likely to be able to settle Following the review of in the petrels down there and bring pleasureto many peopleas by Bourne (1967) Black-browed Albatrosses adults. It is notable that agood many of the recent (Dtomedea melanophris) have been reported in Britain and Ireland in most years (such records are listed annually in reports of the occurrenceof See Supplement.

598 American Birds, June 1974