Rising Tide Images
Billing Albatrosses
Happy World Albatross Day!
A pair of Laysan albatrosses engage in billing or bill fencing. Albatrosses with established pair bonds are the first of the season to arrive at the breeding colony. Males generally arrive first in mid-November and stake out a nesting site, females arrive a few days or so later. After a brief reaffirming courtship dance followed by mating, the couple return to solitary nomadically soaring over the north Pacific for about two weeks to forage and fatten up for the rigors of nesting and brooding. Juveniles and vagrants from other colonies may also do the courtship dance seeking to establish a bond with an initial or new mate. When a likely prospect is found, an intricate courtship dance ensues with grunts, whistles, head bobbing, sky calling, bill fencing, and other elaborate visual and auditory ritual repertoire. Olfactory recognition is also likely involved.
Billing Albatrosses
Happy World Albatross Day!
A pair of Laysan albatrosses engage in billing or bill fencing. Albatrosses with established pair bonds are the first of the season to arrive at the breeding colony. Males generally arrive first in mid-November and stake out a nesting site, females arrive a few days or so later. After a brief reaffirming courtship dance followed by mating, the couple return to solitary nomadically soaring over the north Pacific for about two weeks to forage and fatten up for the rigors of nesting and brooding. Juveniles and vagrants from other colonies may also do the courtship dance seeking to establish a bond with an initial or new mate. When a likely prospect is found, an intricate courtship dance ensues with grunts, whistles, head bobbing, sky calling, bill fencing, and other elaborate visual and auditory ritual repertoire. Olfactory recognition is also likely involved.