Re: [Birding-Aus] Which Wandering Albatross?
Ashwin Rudder
The general consensus was that these birds (both in general, and the two I
asked about) are incredibly difficult to identify with certainty. Those who
replied were fairly happy to call the first bird a Gibson's, while the
second attracted a fairly even split between exulans and gibsoni.
I originally dismissed Tristan's (dabbenena) straight out on the basis of
distribution, however a few people made reference to them. How often are
they recorded in Australia's waters?
Cheers,
Ashwin
On Wed, Mar 28, 2012 at 10:19 AM, Henry Battam <hb...@uowmail.edu.au> wrote:
> Ashwin
>
> Individual 1 has brown plumage and a definite forehead. It is most likely
> D. gibsoni, but could be (less likely) D. dabbenena.
> Individual 2 has 3 generations of plumage. However the youngest
> generation is slate-coloured, and this bird has no distinct forehead,
> characteristics of D. exulans
>
> Cheers
>
> Harry Battam
> Institute for Conservation and Environmental Management
> University of Wollongong
> Wollongong, NSW, Australia 2522
> Mobile +61 429 887 883
>
> ________________________________________
> From: birding-a...@lists.vicnet.net.au [
> birding-a...@lists.vicnet.net.au] on behalf of Ashwin Rudder [
> noisy...@gmail.com]
> Sent: 27 March 2012 21:05
> To: birding-aus
> Subject: [Birding-Aus] Which Wandering Albatross?
>
> Hi all,
>
> I'd like a hand identifying these two Wandering Albatross to species (or
> subspecies depending on your taxonomy beliefs) level, if it's possible. At
> the moment I'm struggling to split between gibsoni and exulans, and thought
> I'd throw the pics out to some experts to get some more opinions. I have
> more photos/bigger crops of both individuals.
>
> The photos were taken mid January 2012, off Lord Howe Island.
> Images 1-3 show the first bird
> Images 4 and 5 show the second bird, which I neglected to get good shots
> of...
> Images 6 and 7 show both birds, with the first bird on the right-hand-side
> in both pics.
> (This information is included in the captions)
>
> The images can be viewed here:
>
> https://picasaweb.google.com/noisypitta/Albatross?authuser=0&feat=directlink
>
> Any thoughts would be appreciated :)
>
> Cheers,
> Ashwin
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John Graff
Hi Ashwin, I think Tristan is pretty rarely recorded with certainty in Australian waters, but the ID difficulties make it difficult to know for certain. It's interesting to note though that satellite tracking data shows that non-breeders do reach the south coast of WA - see the Tristan Albatross factsheet at ACAP http://www.acap.aq/acap-species
John> Date: Sat, 31 Mar 2012 18:24:43 +1100
> From: noisy...@gmail.com
> To: birdi...@vicnet.net.au
> Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Which Wandering Albatross?
Henry Battam
We have had at least one Tristan (banded on Gough Island) off Wollongong NSW. They are very similar in size and plumage to D. gibsoni and there is little chance of discrimination in the field. There are photos on the SOSSA website. However we have had lots of D. gibsoni band exchanges between NSW and Adams Island, thus while Gibson's is the most common Diomedea in NSW waters, Tristans do occur.
Harry Battam
Institute for Conservation and Environmental Management
University of Wollongong
Wollongong, NSW, Australia 2522
Mobile +61 429 887 883
________________________________________
From: birding-a...@lists.vicnet.net.au [birding-a...@lists.vicnet.net.au] on behalf of John Graff [jgr...@hotmail.com]
Sent: 31 March 2012 19:24
To: noisy...@gmail.com; Birding-Aus
Ashwin Rudder
Albatross in Aus waters. It seems that the difficulty in ID-ing them makes
them not really worth considering unless you can get them in the hand.
Cheers,
Ashwin