Thalassarche bulleri (Buller's Albatross)

IUCN Status: Near Threatened

When you hang around people fascinated with birds (“birders” or “twitchers”) long enough you realise that there are layers and groups of specialisation. One group I’ve had a couple of opportunities to go out with specialise in pelagic birds such as albatross and petrels.

It might come as no surprise that getting to know these birds is challenging. They are often seasonal, moving north or south based on temperature of the water etc. They mostly are found over deep water at or beyond the continental shelf. They are often species that are rare or threatened. While these all make seeing and learning to recognise these birds challenging, the most perplexing aspect of pelagic birds for me is how similar some species are.

Buller’s albatross is so similar to grey-header albatross that you need to look at the thickness of the yellow lines on the beak, the margin of black on the underside edges of the wings, the amount of black leading the eye, and hard to judge size / robustness differences. Now imagine looking for these traits through binoculars, at a bird moving rapidly, at a distance, often looking towards the sun.

It’s truly impressive seeing folk identify these birds quickly, and incredibly accurately…. The same determination takes me ages looking at my photos, shot with a telephoto lens, on a large screen, in the comfort of home, with the aid of field guides and other references.