Certainly looks like a Black-browed to me.
From what I remember, the eye-patch difference between melanophris and
impavida is apparent at a young age, long before the eye-colour means
anything. So I'd go with melanophris.
Then again, what is this thing?
http://cdn2.arkive.org/media/E1/E107F013-8EBE-4D25-834B-FCFD542F0E55/Presentation.Large/Black-browed-albatross.jpg
Maybe the eye-patch is more variable than I thought.....
Cheers, Chris.
On 07/01/2012 06:02 PM, Nikolas Haass wrote:
Hi Rob and Birding-Aus,
Thanks. Yes, the consensus so far - based on the mentioned field marks - is
that this bird is NOT a Grey-headed Albatross.
However, I don't agree that the underwing in 1st and 2nd year Black-browed/Campbell
Albatross are diagnostic for either species. Black-browed goes from solid charcoal grey
underwings at the time of fledging through stages similar to the "hairy armpit
pattern" of a Campbell Albatross. Therefore in my opinion the underwing pattern
cannot be used to tell them apart at this age. To my personal experience, the eye-brow
shape of the Maroubra bird points more towards Black-browed (although admittedly this is
also not evidence-based and therefore not useful until proven). Unfortunately, we can't
see the eye colour in the photo, which would also be useless in the first year but
becomes more and more amber in the following years [and finally yellow] in Campbell.
Grey-headed Albatross is a VERY RARE bird off NSW and heavily over-reported due to confusion with young Black-browed or Campbell Albatrosses. While juvenile and adult Grey-headed Albatross are straight forward to ID, 2nd and 3rd year birds are notoriously difficult to ID and those are the ones that cause most confusion. Adult Grey-headed Albatross has to my knowledge never been reported off NSW.
Also over-reported are Salvin's Albatross (due to confusion with young
Shy/White-capped) and Little Shearwater (due to confusion with Fluttering
Shearwater in contrasting light conditions)
Cheers,
Nikolas
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