Contributor
Date
Location
- Age
- Not specified
- Sex
- Not specified
Media notes
very cool still from video showing massive wingspan of this bird as well as mostly dark bill and gray head
Observation details
***Mega. This bird appeared at about 8:45am moving west to east close to shore, it appeared to be loosely associating with two Gannets, with which it was comparable in size, not larger. It was approximately straight out from our position when it was first picked up, shearing up from behind a breaking wave, I was immediately struck by this relatively large seabird with all black upperside to wings, very broad white rump and broad terminal tail band. It had a very slender structure with extremely long pointed wings. wings were held mostly straight with a slight bend at the carpel joint and a slight downward bowing. As it continued its banking, I noted the pale head, large bill and white body and under wings. On closer inspection, when the initial blind panic had subsided slightly, we noted that the head was washed with gray, not just restricted to the nape and the bill was large and long and dark, except for the yellow "nose" which was seen a couple of times at the right angle. The underwings were mostly white with thin black border to leading and trailing edge. Amazingly, TS managed to get a short video clip as the bird passed our position, stills from the video attached. The combination of size, structure and all noted plumage and bare part features are fully consistent with Yellow-nosed Albatross and at odds with Black-browed. A full description will be submitted to NYSARC.
Technical information
- Dimensions
- 750 pixels x 1138 pixels
- Original file size
- 66 KB