tags: Short-tailed Albatross, Steller's Albatross, Phoebastria albatrus, Diomedea albatrus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Short-tailed Albatross, also known as Steller's Albatross, Phoebastria (Diomedea) albatrus photographed on Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge -- one of the most remote coral atolls on earth -- a US territory in the north Pacific Ocean [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joe Fuhrman. I encourage you to purchase images from this professional photographer.
NOTE: Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
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Cool! Do you know if there are any nesting pairs out there?
to the best of my knowledge, there are not. since they do not nest alone, i doubt there will be any until a small group show up, or biologists put a few fake birds out there so the adults think they've got their own neighborhood there.
What a great bird, even for Midway Atoll! That humongous, mostly pink, bill's a good mark for this species.
Tubenose!
The last time we had a related bird from Midway (if I recall correctly) was a Laysan. But I don't think that's this. Nor is it the other that seems likely to occur on Midway (Black-footed). (This has a pinkish bill, not a black one.)
And from the comments, I'm guessing this isn't a bird that's commonly nesting on Midway?
Could it be an Stellers albatross?
Short-tail albatross. Juvenile. I saw one when I was there a year ago. There are decoys out. No nesters at that time...yet. Let's keep our fingers crossed.
Wow, that doesn't look like the adult pics I've seen. Can you give me some field marks, please?
Bardiac -- the huge pink bill with a blue tip and half-hooded appearance are typical for a subadult bird (technically not a juvenile -- they would be more uniformly gray-brown, although still with that monster pink bill). Incidentally, there are recent records for the west coast, and with the population increasing, we can hope that those records will increase as well.