New England Seabirds | Wandering Birder | Midway | Albatross | Short-tailed Albatross

Short-tailed Albatross

Short-tailed Albatross also called Stellar's Albatross or the golden goony is a most highly endangered bird. Breeding on islands in the north west Pacific Ocean near Japan, the bird was persecution nearly to extinction by Japanese plume hunters. It is being brought back from the brink by efforts of the Japanese governments and a single scientist. One of the evening programs on Midway is a film shown at the theatre about the effort to save the Short-tailed Albatross.

One of the problems with the bird is that it now breeds on a single island which is an active volcano. It is very important to establish alternate breeding colonies and that is not an easy thing to do with albatross that have strong site fidelity. The Midway National Wildlife Refuge is attempting to lure Short-tailed Albatross to Eastern Island with decoys.

A single Short-tailed has taken up residence on Eastern Island . In the photo above he is resting with his head on his back waiting for other singles to show up so (s)he too can dance and try to find a mate for life. Notice the yellow-flowed plant in the background. This is an introduced species which is a problem because it eventually grows so dense that the birds cannot penetrate. In the foreground Laysan chicks. The refuge allows a supervised tour of Eastern Island once a week. Visitors are allowed to get close enough to this bird for a quick photograph. As you can see our presence did not seem to bother the bird much.

In January of 2001 another Short-tailed Albatross not fully mature because it retains a dark smudge on the back of the head showed up on Sand Island. (Remember Midway Atoll consists of 2 islands: Sand Island where visitors are allowed and Eastern Island.) This bird was banded 8 April 1993 by Dr. Hiroshi Hasegawa on Torishima Island, Japan.We did not see this bird as it apparently left the week before we arrived.

So at this point the project can be said to be promising. If successful Midway NWR will play an important role in the survival of this species.