Royal Albatross ~ BOK Returns To Incubate Her Egg! WYL Departs To Sea To Forage! 💞💕💞 12.15.25

WYL has been incubating the egg since Dec 5th (10 days) and BOK is seen returning to the nest! WYL skycalls his greeting to BOK and she returns it when she approaches the nest. BOK waits for for a few minutes for WYL to get up - she is anxious to get back on her precious egg! They have a quick changeover - WYL does some gardening for several minutes as he gradually makes his way to the right and departs back to the sea to forage. BOK is now on the egg and will remain on the egg until WYL returns in a few days or week or longer.

News from Sharyn Broni: "The fertile egg was laid on the 6th of November so is now 39 days old. Eggs are incubated for an average of 79 days before hatching so this egg is now halfway through the incubation period. Give or take a few days, the chick is due to hatch near the end of January 2026. BOK returned from a 10-day foraging trip this morning. WYL is now out to sea on his foraging trip.

BOK has a GPS tracker and WYL will receive his GPS tracker the next time that he is on the nest. BOK had travelled over 1500km on her foraging trip. SP = start point and EP = end point.

2025/26 season update

Forty-seven eggs were laid in total this season, 2 eggs have broken and 2 were infertile, the rest are viable so far. Loses are inevitable, our work maximises the number of chicks fledging but cannot prevent all negative outcomes.

Parents take turns incubating their large, single egg for the long incubation period until the chick hatches. Incubation stints can be quite short at the beginning and the end of the eggs incubation but often become quite long during the middle as they need to find enough food for themselves and the new chick to come.

If a parent is on the nest for 13 days, we remove the egg to the incubator room for safe keeping as there is a risk of desertion. The toroa are happy to incubate a dummy egg. Hydration and supplementary feeding can be provided to toroa who have been on the nest longer than 15 days. "
Thank you for watching!

Video captured & edited by Lady Hawk

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Courtesy of Dept of Conservation Royal Cam, Royal Albatross Taiaroa Head, New Zealand https://www.allaboutbirds.org/cams/ro...

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