Proud Mōlī

A beautiful mōlī, or Laysan albatross, appears to proudly show off her nestling; the result of a successful breeding season. Actually, covering and uncovering the chick was for thermoregulation on a windy, partially cloudy day; there was no sense of parental pride (or was there?). Albatross produce only one egg during nesting season and take some seasons off, especially when they molt, due to the high energy expenditure. Both adults take turns foraging for food. Alternating, one takes up to two weeks at sea while the other fasts on the nest nurturing the nestling. Larger chicks able to thermoregulate are left alone as it requires both parents to spend most of their time travelling up to thousands of miles to accomplish their hunt for surface forage of squid, fish, and fish eggs, usually in ocean upwellings found with the acute olfaction of their tube noses. This chick is expected to fledge in a few months after growing larger than the adults that are providing it a diet of high caloric, oily meals retained then regurgitated from the proventriculus portion of the adult’s stomach. It will then be abandoned to learn to fly and forage on its own. If all goes well, natal philopatry will return the juvenile to the nesting colony after three to five years at sea to begin establishing a long-term monogamous mating bond and breed at age five or older.

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