Royal Albatross~💞 Happy reunion! BOK returns home & change over~1:49 PM 2026/01/23

13:47 😆Not an elegant landing, but it wasn't a crash landing either.
13:57 a curious non-breeder
14:07 😍Dad is feeding his chick before he leaves
Albatross parents feed their young by regurgitating a highly nutritious, oily mix of squid, fish, and crustaceans, along with fish eggs.
14:16 The changeover from WYL to BOK
Video is cut down. The entire exchange took 36 minutes.

INFO by Sharyn Broni, Ranger DOC:
Forty-seven eggs were laid in total this season, 2 eggs have broken and 2 were infertile, one has been determined a late dead embryo, and 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.

When hatching is close the parents may start taking shorter foraging trips and more frequent turns on the nest.

Video captured & edited by LizNm
Courtesy of Cornell Lab & Dept of Conservation Royal Cam New Zealand.
www.allaboutbirds.org/cams
   / cornelllabbirdcams  
©Live Royal Albatross Cam - #RoyalCam - New Zealand Department of Conservation :   / @docgovtnzht   side