a.k.a. Sooty Mollymawk
- Phoebetria fusca
Identification
One of the two Phoebetria species which are distinguished from Diomedea albatrosses by wholly sooty-brown plumage, very slender wings and pointed tail, and more graceful, bouyant wheeling flight but very difficult to tell apart. Adult: sooty-brown slightly darker on head, particularly on sides and paler across nape, tail and primaries blackish with pale shaft-streaks. Iris brown, incomplete white eye-ring, bill black with yellow or orange stripe on lower mandible and legs greyish or mauve. Immature: juvenile as adult but with paler nape sometimes forming half-collar and indistinct paler fringes to mantle. Bill blackish with grey, bluish or purple stripe on lower mandible and lacks white shaft-streaks on tail and primaries. Light-mantled Sooty Albatross P. palpebrata has paler upperparts extending from hindneck to rump contrasting with wings and at close range by blue stripe on lower mandible. Immatures can be very difficult to separate as colour of bill-stripe can overlap but pale plumage above on Sooty does not extend to lower back and rump as in Light-mantled Sooty.
Length: 84-89cm. Wingspan: 195-205cm.
Distribution
South Atlantic and southern Indian Oceans. Breeds on Tristan da Cunha and Gough Island in the Atlantic and in the Indian Ocean on Amsterdam, St Paul, Marion, Prince Edward, Crozet and Kerguelen Islands. Dispersing birds occur throughout the southern Atlantic and Indian Oceans between about 300S and 600S.
Taxonomy
Habitat
Colonial breeder on grassy clifftops on islands where present September to May, otherwise at sea. Often follows ships for long periods.
Behaviour
Voice: Wild double-note to overhead birds from nest.
Breeding: Breeds in southern summer. Nest is a large bowl made of mud and vegetable matter on steep hillside or in gully. Single egg, white marked with grey-brown speckles (101 x 66mm). Incubated by both parents for about 55-60 days and young fed by both parents. Fledges after 5 months.
Diet: Squid and fish, sometimes refuse from ships.
