Shy Albatross vs White-capped Albatross

["Jeff Davies" <>]

G'day Jeremy,

I have also been looking at the under-wing issue between these two for the
last couple of years and have found equal variation of blackness in the
under-primaries for both. The bill colour seems to be a good feature
however. I will look closer at these two birds next year but would be very
interested to hear any other insights into this pair you may uncover
yourself. 

Cheers Jeff.




 

-----Original Message-----
From: 
 On Behalf Of Jeremy O'Wheel
Sent: Friday, 22 June 2012 3:10 PM
To: birding-aus
Subject: Shy Albatross vs White-capped Albatross

G'day all,

Recently I've been having some discussion about the differences between the
Tasmanian Shy Albatross - T. cauta - and the New Zealand White-capped
Albatross - T. steadi (or T. cauta cauta/steadi depending on your taxonomy).
Various sources seem to indicate that breeding T. cauta have a yellow spot
at the upper base of the beak, while T. steadi never have this yellow dot.
It has also been suggested that T. steadi has black primaries
8,9,10 while on T. cauta they are black and white.

I was wondering if anybody know more about the differences, especially
differences that can be identified in the field, or can confirm or deny the
differences I've suggested?  I was also wondering if anybody have photos of
either species/spp. nesting at their various locations with the underwings
visible (esp. P8-10)?

Cheers,

Jeremy O'Wheel
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