For those interested, I am posting more information on the albatross at Kingston yesterday. I searched for the bird again for 2 hours in the afternoon and later on in the day yesterday without success.
Plumage: The bird appeared immaculate white with contrasting black across the wings and the back. The black extended across the entire wings include secondaries and primaries without any white visible on the upperside. With the exception of the back, the body appeared entirely white. The head may have been slightly dusky. There appeared to be a dark smudge or shadow around the eye. The underside of the wings was striking, with an even coloured and fairly even width black patch that made up maybe 1/4 of the wing on the leading edge and extended from the body to the end of the primaries and just around to the back edge of the wing. Otherwise, the bird appeared entirely white from below. The underside of the tail may have been slightly dusky, but from below it did not stand out at all. I did not obtain a good look at the tail from above. The undertail coverts were white, as was the rump. Bare parts: The bill was heavy and dusky, and appeared to get darker toward the top of the bill forming some sort of edge or line. I could not see the colour of the top of the bill (although I focused on this as the bird flew by). I did not note the colour of the legs or feet. >From below, they did not stand out. Shape: The bird appeared large, with excessively long wings that were fairly even in width, somewhat thin for the size of the bird. The wings tapered very gradually from both the leading and trailing edges, forming a less asymmetrical tip compared with other birds (e.g. gulls). The body was stalky with a sizable head and heavy bill. The bill appeared somewhat swollen at the base. Behaviour: From head-on the bird gave a giant dragon-fly-like appearance, with stiff and shallow wing beats. Wing beats appeared somewhat fast for such a large bird (maybe slightly over 1 beat per second and fairly even on the up and down stroke), and occurred in pulses (maybe 4 or 5 at a time) interspersed with periods of gliding. Most striking was the shallow aspect of the wing beats (extending less than 45 degrees from the horizontal) and the stiff nature of the wings - I never saw the bird really bend its wings during the entire period of observation. When gliding, the wings were held in a broad sweeping arc. Identification: The bird was separable from adult and subadult Great Black-backed Gulls by the combination of lack of white on the upper side of the wings, the even black front edge of the under side of the wings, bill colour and shape, and the overall shape and behaviour. The bird fits the Yellow-nosed Albatross group, and was consistent with those I've seen previously (in Africa). I don't have a good reference to compare with other similar species, or to separate from the recent splits in the Yellow-nosed group (Atlantic vs Indian), and I'm not sure my observations will be sufficient to identify this bird to species. The bird is ABSOLUTELY SPECTACULAR. I hope others have a chance to see it. The entire event was straight out of the twilight zone - the bird flew low over a parking lot, sun bathers, people walking their dogs at mid day as I pulled my two-year old in a wagon.... I had no binoculars or camera - this is about the best detail that I can provide. Directions: From 401, take Division Street south to Johnson St. Turn left, then right on Barrie Street. Take Barrie Street south to the Lake. The bird was seen just to the west at the visible smoke stack opposite the hospital. -- **************************************************** Paul R. Martin, PhD Baillie Family Chair in Conservation Biology and Assistant Professor Department of Biology Queen's University Kingston, ON K7L 3N6 Canada email: [email protected] phone: +001 613.533.6598 fax: +001 613.533.6617 http://post.queensu.ca/~pm45/ **************************************************** _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to ONTBIRDS mailing list [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/
