Boobies! Petrels, Shearwaters, Ducks, Finches, Curlews! (and a Noddy)

Here are the last of the bird pictures from Laysan! There are a few more that I don' t have pictures of...like plovers, turnstones and other shorebirds. Enjoy!

Masked Booby:


Adult, can you find the chick?


Adult on nest - boobies usually lay 2 eggs, but this one had 4!


Masked Booby chick:


Red-footed booby - they nest in the Tournefortia:


Brown Booby:


Sooty Tern with little chick:


Winner of the cutest chick ever award: Bulwer's Petrel - they look like little afro puffs!


Laysan Duck (endangered):


Christmas Shearwaters:



Wedge-tail Shearwaters: they sound like ghosts when they call, kinda eerie!


Laysan Finch (endangered):


Bristle-thighed Curlew:

Terns and Noddies!

The island is full of terns and noddies. FYI: noddies actually nod all the time! I would love to find out why! They are always staring at their feet like they want to make sure they are still there! These are the smaller seabirds, and some flock in mass! The Sooty Terns return to the island during breeding season and circle their perspective nesting area for weeks looking and calling for their mates. They are really, really loud and obnoxious!

White Tern egg:


Newly hatched white tern chick:


Adult with young chick:


Adult and older chick - check out the cool 'do the chick is sporting:


Adult bringing back fishies for the chick:


Adult:


Gray-back Tern chick:


Brown noddy adult with small chick:


Older brown noddy chick:


Black noddy chick - note they nest in trees, while the brown noddies are on the ground:


Juvenile Blue-gray noddy - usually don't occur on Laysan:


Brown noddy adult on a misfit buoy:

Birds: Red-tail Tropicbird

Red-tail tropic birds are the prettiest bird on Laysan! They are white, with bright red bills and striking black markings. They have 2 really long, red tail feathers, that are about 1.5 ft in length. During breeding season, they have a rosy-pink hue to their white feathers.

Adult:



Adult with young chick:


Chick at a few weeks old, beginning to grow wing feathers:


Older chick:


Chick read to fledge:

Birds: Frigate Birds

Frigate birds make their nests in the Tournefortia, and raise 1 white chick. The females are black with white heads/throats and the males have a bright red throat sack that they inflate to impress the females during mating season. The males also have a really cool "cape" of iridescent green feathers on their back. Adults are really big, about the size of a vulture. And, they have an obsession with picking at things that stick up, like branches or your hat when walking around the island!

Female with her chick:


Male sleeping:


Male flying with inflated throat sack:


Juvenile:


This chick is about to beat me up!



Really cute, huh?

Laysan: Birds! Albatross

Here is the first installment of bird pictures. We have 2 different types of albatross on Laysan - the Black-footed Albatross, who are all brown, and the Laysan Albatross, who are white and gray (kinda like gulls). When I was there, the chicks were pretty big and then lost their down and fledged! I would see them practicing their flying, especially when it was a little windy and rainy. I also saw quite a few actually fledge and take off from the island!

When the albatross chicks molt, they all tend to have hairstyles straight out of the 70s! Totally awesome, man!

Albatross come back to Laysan in the late fall to find their mate and breed. They have an intricate breeding dance that both male and female perform in unison for each other. Albatross start laying eggs (about the size of a very large goose, maybe) in December, and usually until the end of January. Both parents care for the egg and the chick for the next 5 months or so until it fledges away from the island. So, in total they invest about 9 months in their chick of that year!

Laysan chicks on old nests:


The "Tyrone"


The "Old dirty, scary guy"


And they always walk through camp from their nesting site to the water in pairs! The "mohawk with chops" and the "island" do


The "Buzz cut" and another "Tyrone"


The "Cave-man" or "Burqa" look


This is my tent chick - he lived outside my tent for a while, then moved to the office tent, then to the back of Gretchen's, then into the Tournefortia bush for shade. I could always tell it was him because when he poops, he makes a squeeky noise!


Black-footed Albatross adult:


Albatross egg:


Laysan Albatross adult:


Black-foot adult feeding its chick: Adults leave the island for about a week or two to forage, sometimes flying up to Alaska, then bring back food for their chicks. It is really amazing that they can tell their chick apart from all the thousands of others next to it!


MJ: Ama's tent chick, who I named after Michael Jackson, cuz they both died the same day...


Chick trying out its wings:


Laysan and Black-foot chick waiting around to be fed:


Super downy Laysan chick:


The "Beavis and Butthead" do