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Black-browed Albatross (Thalassarche melanophris) Alternate name(s): "Black-browed Mollymawk" Size: 0.85-0.95 m; wing span 2.1-2.5 m Weight: 2.9-4.7 kg

Australia: Family Group 3 Family Group 3 table Southern Fulmar Antarctic Petrel Cape Petrel Black-winged Petrel Providence Petrel Kermadec Petrel Soft-plumaged Petrel Tahiti Petrel Buller's Shearwater Wedge-tailed Shearwater Flesh-footed Shearwater Short-tailed Shearwater Fluttering Shearwater Hutton's Shearwater Little Shearwater Antarctic Prion Slender-billed Prion Fairy Prion Southern Giant-Petrel Northern Giant-Petrel Light-mantled Albatross Wandering Albatross Black-browed Albatross Campbell Albatross Buller's Albatross Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross Shy Albatross Wilson's Storm-Petrel New Zealand Storm-Petrel White-faced Storm-Petrel Thumbnails page Family group table Index of bird names Habitat pages Key plants Birds home page

Similar species

Description     Classification     Distribution     Sightings     Photos     Breeding     Nest     Eggs     Behaviour     Food     Call/s

Physical description Click here for a physical description Black-browed Albatrosses are very big seabirds with an almost all-white body plumage. Adult birds have a broad black fringe all around the underwings. The upperwings are all dark-grey. The bill is yellow-orange, with a pink tip, the black eyes are outlined by a grey-black eye stripe. Immature birds and different races have varying degrees of grey in their plumage, especially on the underwings. Immature Black-browed Albatrosses also have a brownish-black bill, or yellowish bill with a dark tip. Juveniles have a narrow light-grey collar.

Taxonomy, classification See Black-browed Albatross at Wikipedia . Click here for classification information The Black-browed Albatross is in some references considered to be conspecific with the Campbell Albatross.

Range, habitat, finding this species Click here for information on habitat and range The overall distribution of this species can be assessed based on sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org . The global distribution of the Black-browed Albatross is available HERE . There are two races of Black-browed Albatrosses, nominate race "melanophris" and race "impavida". The range of the Black-browed Albatross is circumpolar in the southern hemisphere, encompassing all southern oceans and coastal waters around the southern continents. They breed on islands in the southern oceans, with the largest population breeding on the Falkland Islands. The South Atlantic population is most likely to migrate/disperse northwards, into the northern Atlantic. Race "impavida" reaches coastal waters off the Australian continent only in the South-East, in a coastal range from about Port Macquarie, NSW, to Eyre peninsula, SA. Race "melanophris" is found over a much wider coastal range, all the way from Port Macquarie, NSW, in the East (and occasionally as far North as the tropic of Capricorn), around the South coast of Australia, to about Geraldton, WA. On Australian territory, Macquarie Island in the Southern Ocean is the only known breeding ground of Black-browed Albatrosses. Black-browed Albatrosses are pelagic birds that, when not breeding, spend most of their time out on the open ocean and in coastal waters. They breed on offshore islands.

Sightings Click here for sighting information M. Mearns reports spotting Black-browed Albatrosses above the Southern Ocean, between Australia and Antarctica, in January 2005. B. Hensen reports spotting a Black-browed Albatross off the coast of NSW near Wattamolla, Royal NP, NSW, in June 2013. We have seen Black-browed Albatrosses on a pelagic to the edge of the continental shelf, 22 nautical miles (40 km) from Terrigal, NSW, in July 2013.

Photos

Race "melanophris"

ADULT

Sex unknown

Frontal view of a Black-browed Albatross on the water; note the characteristic black eyebrow and dark eyes, as well as the red tip of the bill
[22 NM (40 km) ESE of Terrigal, NSW, July 2013]

Near-lateral view of a Black-browed Albatross on the water
[22 NM (40 km) ESE of Terrigal, NSW, July 2013]

Lateral view of a Black-browed Albatross on the water
[22 NM (40 km) ESE of Terrigal, NSW, July 2013]

View of the underwings of a Black-browed Albatross (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Off Mistral Point, Maroubra, NSW, June 2013]

Dorsal view of a Black-browed Albatross in flight
[22 NM (40 km) ESE of Terrigal, NSW, July 2013]

View onto the upperwings of two Black-browed Albatrosses (photo courtesy of M. Mearns)
[Southern Ocean, January 2005]

IMMATURE/JUVENILE

Juvenile Black-browed Albatross (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Off Mistral Point, Maroubra, NSW, June 2013]

View of the underwings of a juvenile Black-browed Albatross (photo courtesy of B. Hensen) - note the mostly dark underwings and the yellowish bill with dark tip; the ID of this bird is not certain: it could also be a juvenile Campbell Albatross (which by some is considered a race of the Black-browed Albabtross)
[Off Mistral Point, Maroubra, NSW, June 2013]

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