Buller's albatross
Buller's albatross, also called Buller's mollymawk, is a small albatross in the Diomedeidae family. It breeds on islands around New Zealand and feeds in waters off Australia and the South Pacific.
Like other birds in its group, Buller's albatross has special nasal openings on the upper bill, a bill made of several plates, and it produces a stomach oil for feeding its chicks and for defense. It also has a salt gland above the nasal passage to get rid of seawater.
In 1998, some scientists suggested splitting Buller's albatross into two species, but most authorities have not accepted this split. The bird is named after New Zealand ornithologist Walter Buller.
Buller's albatross is about 79 cm long. Adults have a silver-gray forehead, a gray head and throat, a black eye patch with a white crescent behind and below the eye. The back, upper wings, and tail are dark gray, while the rump and underparts are white. The underwing is white with a black tip and a broad dark band along the leading edge. The bill is large and black with yellow on the upper part. Juveniles have a darker head and a brown bill.
They nest in colonies, usually on cliffs, steep coastal slopes, grassy meadows, or tussock-covered hills. Some nests on the Snares Islands are built inland under trees. The nest is a mound of soil, grass, and roots set in a shallow depression. Breeding starts in December, and eggs are laid in late January on the Snares. Incubation lasts about 60 days, with both parents sharing duties. Chicks fledge about 170 days after hatching, and the birds breed every year.
Buller's albatross feeds on squid, fish, tunicates, octopus, and crustaceans. It is endemic to New Zealand and breeds on the Snares Islands, Solander Island, the Chatham Islands (Big and Little Sister and Forty-fours), and the Three Kings Islands (Rosemary Rock). Adults forage from about 40°S to 50°S, from Tasmania to the Chatham Rise. Non-breeding birds roam across the South Pacific, with many visiting the Humboldt Current off Chile and Peru.
The species was formerly listed as Vulnerable, but it was downlisted to Near Threatened in 2008 after new information showed it was not as rare as once thought. The range is large, and the breeding range is small. Population estimates from 1999 suggest around 64,000 birds, with several thousand breeding on the Snares, Solander, Forty-fours, Big and Little Sister, and Rosemary Rock.
Buller's albatross is most often caught as bycatch in longline fisheries from New Zealand. Although some protections were put in place in 1992, squid trawlers still catch them. Weka birds on Big Sister may prey on eggs and chicks. Most islands are legally protected, though the Chatham Islands colonies are on private land.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 10:29 (CET).