Banding Day For Northern Royal Albatross Chicks

Watch the chicks from the Northern Royal Albatross Cam receive their first leg bands during a routine weight check with rangers from the New Zealand Department of Conservation (DOC) on July 9. The rangers approach the lumbering chicks and safely handle them during the banding and weighing processes. Plastic bands with a unique alphanumeric code are placed on the left legs of the chicks, and then the chicks are weighed with a basket and scale.

Who’s Who: The Top Flat chick (right) was banded as E24, and the Top Flat Track chick (left) was banded as E25. These leg bands are an important conservation tool that helps rangers identify and track individual birds as they move around the colony. Stainless-steel bands will also be placed on the chicks in early August.

Trading Places: Note that the Top Flat chick has moved away from his natal nest and is spending much more time on the right side of the cam view. Even though he’s moved quite a bit, his parents will still be able to find him when they come into feed. Chicks often move away from the nest at this age.

Learn more about all the work that the DOC rangers do to help the albatrosses nesting within the breeding colony at Pukekura/Taiaroa Head on the DOC’s website.