Albatross news

A few screenshots of the new star of the Royal Albatross Cam. This season's chick hatched January 26th 2022.

Both parents at the nest for a brooding shift change. Mom (front) has been at sea for a few days gathering food while dad has looked after the chick. The pair in the spotlight this year is the same as 2020's, so the new chick is Atawhai's little sibling. Mom can be recognized by a yellow-red-black band on her left leg, and dad has an orange-green-black one.

Parents preening each other during their time together. Their reunions are so sweet to witness.

Mom and chick. Just a peek, but still very cute.

A bit closer peek.

Chick returned to nest after a weighing. The nesting colony is carefully monitored due to the species being endangered, and the birds have become used to humans' presence. They're still wild, and don't particularly like it, but they tolerate it, and the people working with them only disturb them when necessary. At this young the chick is given frequent health checks, and even hatched in an artificial incubator (with a dummy egg left in the nest as a placeholder), to make sure everything goes well, but the time between checks grows as the chick does.

Last year's chick Tiaki can still be found on the tracking map at the site, and she has made quite the journey after her fledging, having crossed the Pacific Ocean to the coast of Chile.

Another young albatross whose nestling days were recorded by the camera, the 2017 season's chick Tūmanako, meanwhile has already returned to the nesting colony, and is hanging out with other juveniles socializing and practicing courtship. Royal albatrosses start nesting at eight years old, so he's not quite there yet, but has been seen on the camera a few times. He has a red-orange-red leg band.