Albatrosses

Breeding and dancing

Albatrosses are colonial, usually nesting on isolated islands; where colonies are on larger landmasses, they are found on exposed headlands with good approaches from the sea in several directions, like the colony on the Otago Peninsula in Dunedin, New Zealand. Many Buller's albatrosses and black-footed albatrosses nest under trees in open forest. Colonies vary from the very dense aggregations favoured by the mollymawks (black-browed albatross colonies on the Falkland Islands have densities of 70 nests per 100 m) to the much looser groups and widely spaced individual nests favoured by the sooty and great albatrosses. All albatross colonies are on islands that historically were free of land mammals. Albatrosses are highly philopatric, meaning they usually return to their natal colony to breed. This tendency is so strong that a study of Laysan albatrosses showed that the average distance between hatching site and the site where a bird established its own territory was 22 m (72 ft).