Birds and Birding's Guide to:

Watching THE ALBATROSSES AND PETRELS

Albatross Habits

This latter habit of feeding frequently results in their extinction, for by baiting a hook attached to a long line with some tempting bit of meat they are easily caught and drawn on board. This practice has been so often resorted to that, coupled with the frequent destruction of the nests, certain species have been greatly reduced in numbers and seem on the verge of extermination.

At the nesting time the Albatrosses resort in great numbers to various isolated oceanic islands, where they build on the ground in open situations a moundlike nest of mud and grasses some eighteen inches or more high. In a slight depression in the top the single egg is laid. The egg is very large, even for the size of the bird, in the case of the Wandering Albatross being about five inches in length and over three inches in diameter.

It is coarse in texture, of an elongated oval form, with the smaller end compressed and often enlarged at the tip; in color the eggs vary from dull white to pale yellow, usually profusely marked at the larger end with reddish brown specks and dots.

The birds while incubating the egg sit very closely, allowing a near approach without making the least movement. On this point Kidder says: “They are dull birds, making but little attempt to defend their eggs beyond loudly clattering their bills. The sound thus produced is louder than would be expected, owing to the resonance of the considerable cavity included by the mandibles.

It is very like the sound of a tin pan beaten with a stick. I knocked several off and secured their eggs before they recovered sufficiently to approach the nests. They climbed on to the empty nests, however, and sat as contentedly, to all appearances, as before. I believe they do not lay a second time; the whalers, who are very fond of the eggs, assert that they never find a second one in a nest that has been once robbed."

Many curious stories have been told regarding the treatment of the young.

Thus it is the popular belief among the whalers that after the young are hatched in January the old birds leave at once and do not return until the following October, the young birds feeding, in the meantime, on their own fat! Against the idea of the young birds feeding at night it is urged that they cannot fly during this period. These statements are, of course, incredible, and it is probable that they are fed at night by the parents, who may be absent during the daytime.

 

 

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