Red List Category & Criteria: EN A3bd ver 3.1 (2001) Year Assessed: 2005 Assessor/s: BirdLife International Evaluator/s: Butchart, S., Stattersfield, A. (BirdLife International Red List Authority), Sullivan, B. (BirdLife International Global Seabirds Programme) & Croxall, J. (British Antarctic Survey) Justification: This species is listed to Endangered on the basis of a projected future decline of more than 60% over the next three generations (56 years), taking account of present rates of incidental mortality in longline fisheries in the north Pacific Ocean. History: 1988 - Lower Risk/least concern (BirdLife International 2004) 1994 - Lower Risk/least concern (BirdLife International 2004) 2000 - Vulnerable (BirdLife International 2000) 2003 - Endangered (IUCN 2003) 2004 - Endangered (BirdLife International 2004) ©IUCN 2004. 2004 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 9th April 2008.

The Black-footed Albatross is a small member of the family that has almost all black plumage.
(while still large compared to most other seabirds)

10% of individuals have white feathers at the base of the tail,
and all adults have white markings around the base of the beak and below the eye.
Its beak and feet are also all dark.
They average at about 81 cm (32 in) in length, weigh about 3.3 kg (7.4 lbs)
and have a wingspan of 2.1 m (6.9 ft).

The Black-footed Albatross, along with the Laysan Albatross and the rare Short-tailed Albatross,
are the three species of albatross that range in the northern hemisphere,
as opposed to the rest of the family which range from the Equator south.


Black-footed Albatross chick at sunset. Sand Island, Midway Atoll

They nest colonially on isolated islands of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands
(such as Laysan and Midway), and the Japanese islands of Tori Shima, Bonin, and Senkaku.
Their range at sea varies during the seasons (straying farther from the breeding islands
when the chicks are older or they don't have chicks)
but they make use of great areas of the North Pacific, feeding from Alaska to California and Japan.

They overlap greatly in breeding and feeding range with the other two species of northern albatross, although the other two will range further north into the Bering Sea than the Black-footed will.

A pair of Black-footed Albatrosses dancing Sand Island, Midway Atoll
These are Teenagers, widows, widowers, or divorcees.
Teenagers in that they have not paired yet, widows or widowers in that their mates have died,
or divorcees in that after several unsuccessful attempts to have offspring, they split assuming the problem is with the other.
The un-paired birds spend much of their time during about a six month period dancing.
If the paring works well they will mate next season.
Copyright ©2002 William H. Scholtz.

The Black-footed Albatross, like the rest of its family, forms long term pair-bonds that last for life.
After fledging the birds return to the colony after three years, and spend two years building nests, dancing and being with prospective mates, a behaviour that is necessary to ensure maximum
trust between the birds (raising an albatross chick is a massive energetic investment,
and a long courting period establishes for both birds that the other is committed).

Nests are simple depressions scraped in the sand, into which one egg is laid.
The egg is incubated for just over two months (65 days).
Both birds incubate the egg, the male incubating more as the female leaves soon after hatching
to recoup reserves used for egg-laying. The average time spent on incubating shifts is 18 days.
However, mates can wait up to 38 days to be relieved, and if something happens to the mate
the other has been recorded incubating for 49 days without food or water.

The chick is brooded for 20 days by its parents, after which both parents leave the nest
and return to feed the chick.
The chick is fed regurgitated food by sticking its bill inside that of its parent.
Fledging occurs after 140 days.

A f Black-footed Albatross, Sand Island, Midway Atoll
Copyright ©2002 William H. Scholtz.

The Black-footed Albatross feeds in pelagic waters, taking fish, mostly the eggs of flying fish,
squid and to a lesser extent crustaceans.
It has been described as a 'floating pig' by one author for its habit of taking kitchen scraps from ships.
It will also consume floating debris, including plastics.

The Black-footed Albatross is considered endangered,
because it is taken incidentally by long-line fishing.
An estimated 4,000 are taken every year, based on the number taken in 1990;
other estimates put the number at 8,000.

It is also vulnerable to oil and ingestion of floating plastics,
which reduces the space in the stomach available for food to be brought to the chick.
Text above from http://en.wikipedia.org


Black-footed albatross - overview
BBC Natural History Unit
http://www.arkive.org

   
Left: Feeding Laysan Albatross and Black-footed Albatross chicks
Right: Hybrid Laysan/Black-footed Albatross trying to dance with Laysan Albatrosses:
This bird looks closer to a Laysan but dances closer to a Black-footed. In any case it can't find a mate.
Although this hybrid combination is not common, it has been recorded many times.

Phoebastria nigripes breeds on the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (USA), the US Minor Outlying Islands and three outlying islands of Japan, colonies having been lost from other Pacific islands. In 2000, the population was estimated at 109,000 breeding birds (278,000 total) at 12 localities, including c.23,000 and 20,500 pairs on Laysan and Midway Islands, respectively. On Torishima, 20 chicks were reared in 1964, compared to 914 from 1,219 pairs in 19984. Monitoring data from three colonies in Hawaii, where over 75% of the world's population nests, suggests that numbers may have decreased by 9.6% from 1992 to 2001. Population models predict that under a moderate bycatch scenario (assuming 8,000 birds are taken Pacific-wide) this species will experience a 60% decrease in numbers over the next three generations if bycatch mortality is not reduced through mitigation measures over this time period. The species disperses widely over the north Pacific Ocean, with occasional records in the Southern Hemisphere ©IUCN 2004. 2004 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 9th April 2008.