Hawaiian Birds and Short-tailed Albatross Breeding

Short-tailed Albatross breeding colonies are currently found on two Japanese Islands – Torishima and Minami-Kojima. Until the 19th century they were previously found on various islands in the western North Pacific, then in the late 1800′s, hunters killed an estimated five million Short-tailed Albatross for feathers, food, and fertilizer, destroying all breeding colonies except on Torishima Island.

The colony on Torishima persisted and a comprehensive project to protect the albatross began. The population has grown steadily and an additional small colony has since become established on Minami-Kojima Island. Torishima’s population grew to 382 pairs in 2008 and is projected to reach 500 pairs by 2020.

Short-tailed Albatross (Phoebastria albatrus) first breed at six years, return to the island where they hatched, and reuse the same nest site year after year. The female lays a single egg on the ground, in a shallow scrape with no lining. Both parents help incubate the egg, and also feed the chick by regurgitating a mixture of flying fish eggs and squid oil. When the chicks are almost full-grown, the adults abandon their nests and return to sea until the next nesting season.

They feed primarily during dawn and dusk hours on flying fish eggs, shrimp, squid, fish, and crustaceans, and have been known to forage up to 2,000 miles from their breeding grounds. They normally only come to land when breeding, but in a practice unique to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, they have been landing ashore for more than 70 years.