Bird Nerd: Seabirds
I’VE BEEN ON many pelagic birding trips and no two have been the same. They are a unique experience you must try…more than once. Serious pelagic trips can last days. But most leave early in the morning, head for deep water off the continental shelf and return late afternoon on the same day. Your guide will be hoping for favourable seas and moderate-to-strong winds. These conditions may not make for the most comfortable trip (do take something for motion sickness), but the rewards can be enormous.
About 140 seabird species other than penguins have been recorded from Australian waters. There are skuas and jaegers, gulls and terns, gannets and boobies, frigatebirds, tropicbirds, shearwaters, storm petrels, diving petrels and, of course, albatrosses. Some species are quite distinct.
Others are separated by subtle plumage patterns. But a trained eye can identify a species by its jizz, or GISS – a birding term commonly interpreted as “general impression of size and shape” and describing a bird’s overall appearance, including flight pattern and colouration.
Certain seabirds can be expected on a pelagic trip, while others can only be hoped for and some are rarely seen.
And when a bird does show up, if winds are strong, it can quickly zoom from sight like a feathered missile.
The oceans are vast and many seabirds cover huge distances in relatively short periods of time. One wandering albatross, for example, was recorded flying almost 6000km in 12 days.
As a general rule, younger birds spend more time at sea than older ones. Studies of a group of juvenile wandering albatrosses found that they fly an average 184,000km in their first year at sea, navigating with a combination of the Sun, stars, Earth’s magnetic field, visual landmarks and internal programming. In fact, the wandering albatross has garnered the admiration and respect of birders and fishers alike. It has the largest wingspan of any living bird, up to
350cm in mature birds, and can weigh more than 11kg.
It seems to glide effortlessly over the waves in all but the strongest winds, with slender wing tips occasionally skimming the water’s surface. The large size of the wandering albatross generally distinguishes it from most other seabirds, but a few other albatross species are similar in size and appearance.
A wandering albatross will go through a number of plumage variations during its lifetime, which can exceed 50 years. Juveniles are brown with a white face. Immature birds become increasingly white during the seven years it takes to reach maturity. Adults are predominantly white with black and white wings, and typically have fine, black, wavy lines on the breast, neck and upper back.
Old ‘snowy’ males have a pure white back, and less black on the wings.
Squid and fish are this species’ preferred food and birds feed day and night, although they forage more actively during the day. They readily scavenge from fishing boats and the water’s surface, and pelagic birders always hope to see these legends of the sea attracted to their boats.