AGEING IMMATURE ATLANTIC YELLOW-NOSED THALASSARCHE CHLORORHYNCHOS AND BLACK-BROWED

T. melanophris albatrosses in wintering grounds using bill colour and moult. Marine Ornithology 37: 249–252. Atlantic Yellow-nosed Thalassarche chlororhynchos and Black-browed T. melanophris Albatrosses were captured at sea off the Brazilian coast and aged based on bill colour and moult of wing, tai...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: T. Melanophris, Albatrosses In, Wintering Grounds, Using Bill, Leandro Bugoni, Robert W. Furness
Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: 2009
Subjects:
Key words
Age determination
albatrosses
origin
Diomedeidae
Thalassarche chlororhynchos
Thalassarche melanophris
South Georgia Island
Online Access:http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.689.5346
http://marineornithology.org/PDF/37_3/37_3_249-252.pdf
Description
Summary:T. melanophris albatrosses in wintering grounds using bill colour and moult. Marine Ornithology 37: 249–252. Atlantic Yellow-nosed Thalassarche chlororhynchos and Black-browed T. melanophris Albatrosses were captured at sea off the Brazilian coast and aged based on bill colour and moult of wing, tail and contour feathers. First-year Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatrosses have a black bill and show no moult. One-year-olds have some yellow at the culminicorn and show tail and contour feather moult, but not primary moult. Two-year-olds show more yellow on the bill, progressing through to full orange culminicorn and reddish nail at age 3, but three-year-olds differ from adults by having only a pale vertical bar at the base of ramicorn and flight feather moult during the breeding period. Adults have a more pronounced vertical bar at the base of the ramicorn and do not moult flight feathers while breeding. Comparison with previous descriptions for ageing Black-browed Albatross shows that birds off Brazil (originating mainly from the Falkland Islands/Malvinas) differ considerably from birds from South Georgia Island. First-year birds wintering off southern Brazil show paler bills, with colour changing quickly after fledging. However, Black-browed Albatrosses two years old with fully black bills, as those described from South Georgia, were also sampled, suggesting a variety of origins of Black-browed Albatrosses wintering in the area and inter-colony differences in bill colour maturation.

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