Hawaiian Birds and Laysan Albatross Breeding

Most Laysan Albatross breed on islands within the Hawaiian archipelago, including Kauai. Midway Atoll, Laysan Island, and the French Frigate Shoals have more than 90% of the breeding pairs. They can stay out at sea for as long as five years before returning to the same island on which they were born. Once mated they tend to remain faithful to their mate and rendezvous each year with their partner at the same nest site staying just long enough to hatch and raise a single chick.

Laysan Albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis) first breed at about nine years of age. Experienced males arrive at breeding colonies in early November, with females following a week later, and first-time breeders a month later. Elaborate courtship dances are performed by both sexes that have up to twenty-five ritualized movements including bowing or swinging the head, mutual preening, and pointing bills skyward. Both sexes participate in building a shallow depression with a built-up rim on open, sandy, grassy ground. Laying begins in mid-November when a single creamy white, brown spotted egg is incubated by both parents for about sixty-five days. Incubation starts with the female for a short 2-day span, when the male takes over for as long as three weeks, and then they switch roles.

Chicks live off a diet of flying fish eggs and squid oil, a product that is rich in fat. Both parents will feed the chick by regurgitation and will often leave them for several days while they obtain food out at sea. Chicks fledge at five and a half months of age (mid-June through late July). Juvenile birds return to the colony three years after fledging, but do not mate for the first time until seven or eight years old. During these four or five years they form pair bonds with a mate that they will keep for life. If one of the mates should die, they will most likely create a new pair bond. Non-breeding birds reside primarily on the open ocean.