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The Black-Browed Albatross in North America: First Photographically

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The Black-Browed Albatross in North America: First Photographically The Black-browed Albatross in North America: First Photographically Documented Record Figure1. ImmatureBlack-browed Albatross at NorfolkCanyon, +65 nmieast of VirginiaBeach, 6 February1999. Notethe graycollar t contrasting white bead, and black underwings with white secondary coverts. Photograph/J.Brian Patteson J. BRIANPATTESON* andothers on 6 February1999 at NorfolkCanyon, a localeover the MICHAELA. PATTEN[ ContinentalShelf roughly 65 nauticalmiles east of VirginiaBeach, Virginia.This date saw cold air temperatures(2-10øC), heavy cloud and EDWARD$. BRINKLEY:I: cover,large swells, and wind-seaconditions estimated at Beautbrt force4-6. Otheressentially pelagic species observed were four light- ' hematicBlack-browed species in NorthAlbatrossAmerica. ThalassarcheAlthough rnelanophristhere have beenis an "overenig- morph Northern Fulmars Fulmarus glacialis, five Manx Shearwaters a dozenreports" of thisspecies off the eastcoast of Canadaand the Puffinuspuffinus, a singleGreat Skua Catharacta skua, two first-win- UnitedStates (ABA 1996), all specimenand photographic records of ter Black-leggedKittiwakes Rissa tridact?la, an immatureRazorbill albatrosseshave pertained to the Yellow-nosedAlbatross T. chloror- Alca torda, and three Atlantic Puffins Fraterculaarctica. hynchos(McDaniel 1973, Mlodinow 1999). Indeed, although the The Black-browed Albatross was first noted at 1230 EST. It Black-browedAlbatross was accepted to the listof specieshaving remained in view for 20 minutes at distancesof 20-100 m. Based on occurredin the United Statesand Canada(ABA 1996),none of the past recordsfor the northwesternAtlantic Ocean,it seemedover- dozenor so reportsis substantiatedby physicalevidence or pho- whelminglylikely that the bird wouldprove to be a Yellow-nosed tographs.Furthermore, the AOU (1998) placedthe specieson the Albatross;indeed, this species remains the "default"albatross off the North Americanlist basedon a specimenfrom Martiniquebut East Coast of North America. Even so, after a few minutes of careful judgednone of the recordsfor the United Statesand Canadato be study,it becameapparent that it was in fact an immatureBlack- satisfactory.Thus, there was some recent discussion of removingthe browed Albatross. It remained in view for at least another 10 minutes speciesfrom the American Birding Association Area list (J.L. Dunn after the identification was made, so all field marks could be pers.comm.). recheckedon thebird with it stillin view.An extensiveset of pho- Hereinwe report the first fully documentedrecord of a Black- tographsand a videotapewere obtained in thistime (Figs. 1--4). browed Albatrossfor the United Statesand Canada.This bird, an immature,was studied at lengthand extensively photographed byus DESCRIPTION OF THE VIRGINIA BIRD The followingdescription is basedon contemporaneousfield notes * EO.Box 772, Hatteras,North Carolina 27943 andphotographs of the bird. This bird was truly huge, long-winged, t DepartmentofBiology, University ofCalifornia, Riverside, California 92521 and impressive.Obviously no other albatrosseswere present for $ 9 RandolphAvenue, Cape Charles, Virginia 23310 directsize comparison, but relativeto otherNorthern Hemisphere 228 NORTHAMERICAN BIRDS Figure2. ImmatureBlack-browed Albatross at NorfolkCanyon, Figure3. ImmatureBlack-browed Albatross at NorfolkCanyon, +65 nmieast of VirginiaBeach, 6 February1999. Notethe typical +65 nmi east of VirginiaBeach, 6 February1999. mollymawkpattern (dark brown mantle with palehead Notethe extensivelyblack underwings, with whitishbases andunderparts), pinkish base to the bill, extensivegray nuchal to the greatersecondary coverts, and the narrowgray breast band. collar,and cleanwhite rump.Photograph/J. Brian Patteson Photograph/J.Brian Patteson specieswith whichthe authorsare familiarthis bird seemedto be roughlythe samesize or slightlylarger than a Black-footed Phoebastrianigripes or a LaysanP. imrnutabilis albatross, with broad- er wingsand a heavierbody. Length from bill tip to tail tip did not appearappreciably longer than the manynearby Northern Gannets Morusbassanus, but the muchgreater wingspan and wingarea and overallrobust appearance of the head,bill, andbody made the bird appearappreciably larger than the gannets. Thebill appearedto be all blackin mostlights, but in betterlight and at dose rangeit was evidentthat it was dark pinkish-gray throughout,with only the ungues being jet black.This black tip was fairlydean-cut from the pinkish-graybase (Figs. 1, 2). The legsand feetwere grayish (perhaps with somepink aswell). Its feetdid not extendbeyond the tip of thetail (Figs.1-3). It flewon long,bowed wingswith deepwingbeats alternating with longglides. It did not raisethe level of itswings much above the horizontal on theupstroke, but oftenbanked dramatically, forming a near-perfectvertical with theocean surface when doing so. It patteredalong the surfaceof the waterfor a shortdistance when taking flight. Not surprisingly,it was silentthroughout the observation. This albatrosswas a typicalmollymawk in plumagepattern/ coloration:pale head, rump, and underparts and dark brown mantle, upperwings,and tail (Figs.1-4). Therewas no distinctpale feather- Figure4. ImmatureBlack-browed Albatross at NorfolkCanyon, ingbreaking the monotony of darkbrown on the mantle (Fig. 2). The +65 nmi east of VirginiaBeach, 6 February1999. rump wasa dean white,lacking a duskybrown extensioninto it, Notethe white uppertailcoverts and graynape extending toward unlikethe rump of mostLaysan Albatrosses (Figs. 2, 4). The napewas the breastin the point. Photograph/].Brian Patteson VOLUME53 (1999), ISSUE dusky-gray,with a nuchalcollar of the samecolor extending down Black-browedAlbatross has a largelywhite head with a contrasting the sidesof the neckto form a narrowbreast band (Figs. 1, 2, 4). A graycrown, nape, and narrow collar (Marchant and Higgins 1990). A smoky-blacksmudge around the darkeye extended posteriorly to a juvenileGray-headed Albatross has a mostlydusky-gray head (i.e., thin pointabout halfway to the rearof theauriculars (forming the includingthe auricularsand extendingalmost to the throat),such classicblack "brow"; Figs. 2, 3). that they appearto havea hood rather than a collar.The Norfolk Theunderwings were mostly dark, smudgy brownish-black, with Canyonbird had a mostlypure white head, with grayon thenape a palewhitish or brownish-whitestripe on the greatersecondary extendingdown the sidesof the uppermostbreast to form a narrow coverts.In the photographs,the palepigmentation appears to be collar.Indeed, this bird looked extremely similar to the juvenile Black- mostlyat thebase of thesecoverts (Fig. 1). Theremiges were black- browedAlbatross in thephotograph published by Harrison (1987). ish,as was most of theleading edge of theunderwing. Indeed, aside Basedon thecoloration and pattern of thebill (pinkish-graybase from the whitishstripe on the secondarycoverts the underwings with a blacktip) andhead and neck (largely white with a graynape were largelyblackish/dark brownish-black (Figs. 1, 3), with only and breastband),the albatrossat NorfolkCanyon was a juvenile minor deviationsfrom this pattern (e.g., slightly paler axillaries). The Black-browedrather than a juvenileGray-headed. whitishon the covertsblurred almost imperceptibly into the wide blackishborders. The tail appearedto be uniformlydark brown, but STATUS IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN it washard to seefrom below because of theexceptionally long, white The westernmostspecimens of the Black-browedAlbatross for the undertailcoverts (Figs. 1, 3). northern Atlantic Ocean are at Lille Hellefiskebankeoff the west coast of Greenlandin lateAugust 1935 (Palmer 1962) and off the Caribbean IDENTIFICATION ISSUES islandof Martinique12 November1956 (Bond 1959).There is an Amongstthe mollymawks,the Shy T. cauta,Buller's T. bulleri,and additionalsight report for the Caribbeanof two +220 km north- Yellow-nosedalbatrosses have extensively white underwings atall ages northeastof LosRoques 6 May 1968(de Bruijne 1970). In starkcon- and arethus readily eliminated. The LaysanAlbatross has a largely trastto theirscarcity in thewestern North Atlantic, the Black-browed pinkbill at all agesand shows much more white on theunderwing. Albatrosshas been recorded on 35-plusoccasions in the eastern Thus,given the extensively black underwings, the choices quickly nar- NorthAtlantic (Lewington et al. 1991),including over 25 recordsfor rowto eitherthe Black-browed or Gray-headedT. chrysostomaalba- theBritish Isles by the late 1980s (Dymond et al. 1989).Alternatively, tross.These species are easily distinguished asadults but are striking- the Yellow-nosedAlbatross has been reliably recorded on over30 ly similaras immatures, thus posing a seriousidentification problem occasionsin thewestern North Atlantic(McDaniel 1973, AOU 1998), (Marchautand Higgins1990). So similarare thesespecies that a yet remains virtually unknown in the easternNorth Atlantic recordof a tidelinecorpse from Iceland in about1844 cannot be iden- (Lewingtonet al. 1991). tifiedto species,though it is dearlyeither a Gray-headedor a Black- It is unclearjust how manyprevious records of theBlack-browed browedalbatross (Bourne 1967, Cramp and Simmons 1974). Albatrossexist for the westernNorth Atlantic.The ABA (1996) stat- As juvenilesboth mollymawkshave a mostlydark bill, largely edthat there are "over a dozenreports;' whereas Brinkley (1997) stat- blackunderwings, and gray about the head and neck Of thesemarks, ed that one in Massachusettsin fall 1996represented the "ninth the exactpattern
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