NSW Ornithological Records Appraisal Committee Unusual Record Report Form

Full Name: Nikolas K. Haass (NKH), Raja W. Stephenson (RWS), Robert Hynson (RH)

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Address: Phone No: 58 Northcote Street Home: 7 3391 6364; mobile: 0424603579 East Brisbane Fax/Email: QLD 4169, Australia nhaass@yahoo.com Species Name: Salvin’s Albatross

Scientific Name: Thalassarche salvini

Date(s) and time(s) of observation: 8 October 2011; 8:45-9:45 h How long did you watch the bird(s)? 60 minutes First and last date of occurrence: 8 October 2011 Distance to bird: Down to 10 m Site Location: Near Brown’s Mountain off Sydney, NSW. Habitat: pelagic Sighting conditions: Good light conditions, clear visibility. See attached pictures. Optical aids used: Leica 12x50 BA (NKH); Canon 7D, Canon 400 mm, f5.6 (RWS) Were other observers present? Do any of the other observers disagree with your identification? Roger McGovern, Hal Epstein and other participants of the pelagic (34 participants total). Nobody disagreed with the ID. To your knowledge, is the species seen frequently at this site? Rarely (cf. map, Figure 13). There are a few well-documented records. Most claims of juvenile/immature Salvin’s Albatross are now considered likely to have been instead juvenile/immature Shy Th. c. cauta or White-capped Albatross Th. c. steadi. Did you use a field guide? The bird was identified in the field without using a field guide. References used subsequently to prepare this report were: ENTICOTT, J. & D. TIPLING (1997): Seabirds of the World. London. • HARRISON, P. (1983): Seabirds, an Identification Guide. Beckenham. • HARRISON, P. (1987): Seabirds of the World. A Photographic Guide. London. • HEATHER, B. & H. ROBERTSON (2005, 2nd ed.): The Field Guide to the Birds of New Zealand. • HOWELL, S.N.G. (2006) Immature Shy Albatrosses (March/April photo quiz answers). Birding 38: 56–59. • HOWELL, S.N.G. (2009): Identification of immature Salvin’s, Chatham and Buller’s Albatrosses. Neotropical Birding 4: 19-25. • HOWELL, S.N.G. (2012): Petrels, Albatrosses, and Storm-Petrels of North America: A Photographic Guide. Princeton. • DEL HOYO, J., A. ELLIOTT & J. SARGATAL (eds) (1992): Handbook of the Birds of the World. Vol. 1. - Barcelona. • MARCHANT, S. & P.J. HIGGINS (eds) (1990). Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. Volume 1: Ratites to Ducks. Melbourne. • MURPHY, R.C. (1936): Oceanic birds of South America. • ONLEY, D. & P. SCOFIELD (2007): Albatrosses, Petrels & Shearwaters of the World. Princeton. • DE ROY, T., M. JONES & J. FITTER (2009): Albatross, Their World, their Ways. CSIRO. • SHIRIHAI, H. (2007, 2nd ed.): A Complete Guide to Antarctic Wildlife. London. • TICKELL, W.L.N. (2000): Albatrosses. Pica Press. Sussex. U.K. How confident are you of your identification? 100% Other details: Surface water temperatures were still very cold for the time of year being 15.8˚C just outside Sydney Heads, rising to 18.5˚C at 15 NM from the heads and dropping back to 17.7˚C off the continental shelf break. We departed from Rose Bay ferry wharf at 7.15 am and returned at 3.30 pm. Sea conditions were slight with a southerly swell of less than a metre and hardly any chop on top of that. The wind started off very light at less than 5 knots from the southwest and freshened a little during the day to 10-15 knots from the south. The weather was quite cloudy in the morning, which gave quite a flat light, and there was some sunshine later in the trip.

Physical Description (see also Figures 1-12) (1) Number: one individual was observed. (2) Age, sex: adult (3) Size and shape: Medium-sized albatross of the ‘Shy-type’; somewhat ‘compact’ with relatively thick neck, short tail and broad wings; larger than present Black-browed Albatross. (4) Plumage colour and pattern: From a distance the bird appeared dark-hooded, white-capped and pale-billed. When the bird approached the vessel, it became obvious that the hood was medium grey (but not as dark as in eremita) with a white forehead and cap and sharp demarcation to the strongly contrasting white chest and underparts. Underwing pattern – similar to eremita – mainly white with narrow black leading and trailing edge, thumb mark at the base of the forewing (smaller than expected for cauta/steadi but similar to eremita), notch at the carpal area, small dusky patch on lesser primary coverts and undersurface of primaries wholly black forming a larger black wingtip sharply demarcated from white lining (as opposed to cauta and steadi). No strong contrast between the hood and the grey upperparts. The grey colour of the upperparts extended almost down to the rump (further down than in cauta/steadi), and was only somewhat paler than the black upperwings (therefore less contrast between upperparts and upperwings than in cauta/steadi but more than in eremita). The dark ‘Shy complex monobrow’ causing the ‘classic stern Shy look’ was more conspicuous than in eremita. (5) Colour of bill, eyes and legs/feet: Pale yellow maxillary unguis and culminicorn and bottom edge of ramicorn; olive-grey latericorn and ramicorn; blackish mandibular unguis; bright yellow-orange skin along the gape and base of ramicorn and gape; iris dark brown; legs/feet blue-grey with pinkish webs. (6) Calls: Nothing to support specific identification. (7) Behaviour, movements, flight pattern, feeding, interactions with other birds, comparisons with other species: Nothing to support specific identification.

Figure 1: Salvin’s Albatross off Sydney, NSW, 8 October 2011. Photograph: Raja Stephenson.

Figure 2: Salvin’s Albatross with Wedge-tailed Shearwater Puffinus pacificus off Sydney, NSW, 8 October 2011. Photograph: Raja Stephenson.

Figure 3: Salvin’s Albatross with Wedge-tailed Shearwater Puffinus pacificus off Sydney, NSW, 8 October 2011. Photograph: Raja Stephenson.

Figure 4: Salvin’s Albatross off Sydney, NSW, 8 October 2011. Photograph: Raja Stephenson.

Figure 5: Salvin’s Albatross off Sydney, NSW, 8 October 2011. Photograph: Raja Stephenson.

Figure 6: Salvin’s Albatross off Sydney, NSW, 8 October 2011. Photograph: Raja Stephenson.

Figure 7: Salvin’s Albatross off Sydney, NSW, 8 October 2011. Photograph: Raja Stephenson.

Figure 8: Salvin’s Albatross off Sydney, NSW, 8 October 2011. Photograph: Raja Stephenson.

Figure 9: Salvin’s Albatross with Gibson’s Albatross Diomedea antipodensis gibsoni and Northern Giant-Petrel Macronectes halli off Sydney, NSW, 8 October 2011. Photograph: Raja Stephenson.

Figure 10: Salvin’s Albatross with Gibson’s Albatross Diomedea antipodensis gibsoni and Northern Giant-Petrel Macronectes halli off Sydney, NSW, 8 October 2011. Photograph: Raja Stephenson.

Figure 11: Salvin’s Albatross with Gibson’s Albatross Diomedea antipodensis gibsoni and Northern Giant-Petrel Macronectes halli off Sydney, NSW, 8 October 2011. Photograph: Raja Stephenson.

Figure 12: Salvin’s Albatross off Sydney, NSW, 8 October 2011. Photograph: Raja Stephenson.

Figure 13: Salvin’s Albatross tracks demonstrating the predominantly eastwards migration from New Zealand towards South America. Source: BirdLife International, Seabird Tracking Database (http://www.seabirdtracking.org/dataset.php) Other species seen: Gibson’s Albatross Diomedea (antipodensis) gibsoni 8; Black-browed Albatross Thalassarche melanophrys 3; Campbell Albatross T. impavida 1; Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross T. carteri 2 (no other ‘Shy-type’ albatross). For non-albatross species see detailed trip report: http://www.sossa-international.org/forum/content.php?562-Saturday-8th-October-2011-Sydney-Pelagic-Trip-Report-Sydney-NSW-Australia

Other species with which you think it might be confused and how these were eliminated? Chatham Albatross Th. eremita: Chatham Albatross of any age should show a grey forehead, a darker grey hood and more contrast between hood and chest/underparts. The bill of adult Chatham Albatross is bright orange and that of juvenile and immature Chatham Albatross shows a more diffuse colour pattern. Shy/White-capped Albatross Th. (c.) cauta/steadi (none were seen during the day): Adult cauta/steadi show a much paler (almost white) head with only the cheeks pale grey. The thumb mark at the base of the forewing is often larger and the notch at the carpal area much less obvious. The white of the underwings extends much further toward the wing tip due to white primary bases. There is a strong contrast between white head and grey upperparts and the white rump is more extensive. Also the contrast between grey upperparts and black upperwings is stronger. The bill is almost wholly pale grey with a yellow maxillary unguis and in breeding mode cauta the base of the culminicorn is bright yellow. Juvenile Shy complex albatross often show very dark hoods, however these birds also show juvenile bill colouration and can therefore easily be ruled out, as the observed Salvin’s Albatross clearly showed the bill colour of an older bird. Furthermore, the plumage differences of the underwings described for adult cauta/steadi also applies for juvenile and immature cauta/steadi. All other mollymawks Thalassarche were easily ruled out by their very different underwing pattern and further specific field marks. Was the description written from notes and/or sketches made (tick box): x during the observation or; o shortly after the observation or; o from memory; x with the aid of the photographs; o with the aid of measurements Please indicate supportive evidence available. Was the bird: x photographed, o taped or o video taped? If yes to any of these, by whom? RWS, for more photographs of this bird see these two links: http://www.adarman.com/Pelagics/New-South-Wales-Pelagics/2011-October-08-Sydney-Pelagic/ http://www.adarman.com/Wildlife-Galleries/AustralianBirds/Procellariiformes/Albatross/Salvins-Albatross/ and RH: http://www.pbase.com/rob_hynson/salvins_albatross What experience have you had with the species in question? NKH has extensive experience with seabirds having been pelagic trip leader on many trips off New South Wales, Tasmania, California, New Jersey/New York and Delaware/Maryland and having participated on many pelagic trips off North Carolina, Galapagos, Queensland, South Australia and New Zealand. NKH has been an active member of the Rare Birds Committees of New Jersey (USA), Hessen and Schleswig-Holstein (both Germany). Following IOC 4.2, NKH has seen 16 albatross species around the world and 14 in Australia. NKH is very familiar with the ‘Shy-type’ complex from many observations off Sydney and Wollongong (NSW; cauta, steadi, salvini), Eaglehawk Neck (TAS; cauta, salvini, eremita), and/or Kaikoura (NZ; steadi, salvini). RWS has seen 14 albatross species. RWS is very familiar with the ‘Shy-type’ complex from many observations off Sydney and Wollongong (NSW; cauta, steadi, salvini), Eaglehawk Neck (TAS; cauta, salvini, eremita), and/or Kaikoura (NZ; steadi, salvini).

Signature:

Date: 3rd May 2014