Overview
Key Features:
Dark,almost black, bill and black webbed feet and legs. This is a very large bird, but smaller than the Short-tailed Albatross, with long wings, gray-black body, and white ring around face at base of bill. Can soar for long periods, never flapping wings but riding air currents.
Similar Species:
Short-tailed Albatross (
Phoebastria albatrus)
Laysan Albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis)
Primary Common Name:
Black-footed Albatross
Synonymous name(s):
Diomedea nigripes
General Grouping:
Seabirds and shorebirds
Geographic Range:
Southern Bering Sea, northern Pacific to southern Baja California
The Black-footed Albatross ranges from the Bering Sea and the Northern Pacific to southern Baja California, using primarily the Northwestern and Northeastern Pacific, while the Laysan Albatross tends to be found in the Central North Pacific. It may be seen in MBNMS waters all months of the year. However, February through August is when they are more likely to be seen. From shore the best viewing areas are Point Pinos in Pacific Grove and Point Joe and Cypress Point in Pebble Beach. They are usually well off shore and seen more often from ships.
Habitats:
exposed sandy beaches, pelagic zone
Notes:
Forages at sea, often follows ships, and nests on sandy oceanic islands.
Abundance:
Relative Abundance:
Fairly common offshore, particularly between February and July. Over 100 individuals have been seen on a single day in MBNMS waters, but that is rare. It is the most frequently sighted albatross off the west coast of North America.
Species Description:
General:
Gray-black body and mantle. A white ring circles the base of the bill on mature birds. Undertail coverts are pale to white. Feet and legs are black and bill is dark (distinguishing it from Laysan and Short-tailed Albatrosses). The eyes are brown. Both genders have similar coloration. The males are heavier and have a larger bill. The sounds made vary from a nasal double-bray to loud single notes and growls. They are usually lower, louder and more nasal than a Laysan Albatross. Both Black-footed and Laysan Albatrosses are equipped with specialized "salt glands" above their eyes that process excess salt. The glands produce a salty solution that is excreted through the birds' nostrils and down grooves of their beaks, where it drips off.
Distinctive Features:
Dark bill and black legs and feet.
Albatrosses are distinguished from all other seabirds by their large size, long slender wings, large bills, and their soaring, steady flight with seemingly endless gliding. When sitting on the water they lose their graceful appearance and float like a giant gull. Albatrosses cannot take off in calm air but must run across the surface of the water, into the wind to become airborne. This is also true of the time they spend on land, needing to run across the sand into the wind, flapping madly to gain altitude.
Size:
Length: 64-81 cm (26-32 inches); wingspan: 193-216 cm (6-7 feet); life span 12-50 yrs. Adults weigh about 3.2 kg to 4.3 kg(7-9 pounds). Males are about 10% heavier than females.The Black-footed Albatross is slightly heavier than the Laysan Albatross and has longer wings and a stockier look in flight.
Natural History:
General:
The Black-footed Albatross comes to land, 96% of them to the northwestern Hawaiian archipelago, for breeding purposes only. The rest of its life is spent on the open ocean. It drinks seawater and excretes excess salt through glands above the eye. It has a keen sense of smell which helps in locating food in large expanses of ocean. The breeding adults (and younger 3 to 5 year olds) arrive at their nesting sites by the end of October, and incubate and brood their single chick on low, flat islets and atolls from November until February. The parents continue to feed their chicks from March until June. They spend the non-breeding season in the North Pacific Ocean (30-60 degrees northern latitude). They mate for life and can live as long as 40 years. The longevity record for the black-footed albatross is 41 years (USGS 2007). A group of albatrosses are known collectively as a flight, a rookery, or weight of albatrosses.
Predator(s):
The only known native predator of both the Black-footed and Laysan Albatrosses in Hawaii is the tiger shark (
Galeocerdo cuvieri). The shark attacks the fledglings when they are leaving land for the first time. On land, non-native dogs, cats, pigs, mongooses, rabbits, and rats affect the size and productivity at breeding colonies and may restrict the reoccupation of some historical nesting sites.
Prey:
Their broad diet is dominated by flying fish and their eggs and some squid and crustaceans. They seize from the surface flying fish (Family Exocoetidae), both egg masses and adults, and secondarily squid (Order Teuthoidea). They will also consume crustaceans, other invertebrates and carrion. Prey species include the following fishes: pomfrets
Brama japonica, Pacific saury
Cololabis saira, grenadier
Coryphaenoides sp., chubby flashlight fish
Electrona risso, snake mackerel
Gempylus serpens, brokenline lanternfish
Lampanyctus jordani, blue shark
Prionace glauca, shining tubeshoulder
Sagamichthys abei, unidentified flying fish (Exocoetidae), unidentified cod-like fishes (Moridae), and unidentified lanternfishes (Myctophidae). They also are attracted to garbage.
Feeding Behavior:
Carnivore, Scavenger
Notes:
They are diurnal feeders. Unlike the Laysan Albatross, they do not have retinas with high levels of rhodopsin for night vision. Thus competition for food between the Laysan and the Black-footed Albatross is minimal. The Black-footed will take mostly flying fish eggs and adults, while the Laysan will take more squid which float to the surface at night. The Black-footed, during daylight hours, are surface feeders and may make shallow surface dives, though they do not usually submerge completely. They scavenge on floating garbage and colorful plastic floating in the sea. Because of this behavior, and for their habit of taking kitchen scraps and offal from ships, they have been described as floating pigs.