Rising Tide Images
Mōlī Nest
Under a shady canopy of ironwood trees, this handsome mōlī scrapes together a shallow nest in the needle-like leaf litter and waits for his mate. Laysan 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 reaffirming courtship dance followed by mating, the couple return to nomadically soaring over the north Pacific for about two weeks to forage and fatten up for the rigors of nesting. The pair return to the nest where the female lays a single egg then departs to replenish the enormous energy deficit required to produce a soda can sized egg. The male takes the first incubation shift and fasts for about two weeks until the female returns to relieve him. They alternate incubation duties and foraging with increasingly shorter shifts. If all goes well, the egg will hatch in about 60 days.
Mōlī Nest
Under a shady canopy of ironwood trees, this handsome mōlī scrapes together a shallow nest in the needle-like leaf litter and waits for his mate. Laysan 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 reaffirming courtship dance followed by mating, the couple return to nomadically soaring over the north Pacific for about two weeks to forage and fatten up for the rigors of nesting. The pair return to the nest where the female lays a single egg then departs to replenish the enormous energy deficit required to produce a soda can sized egg. The male takes the first incubation shift and fasts for about two weeks until the female returns to relieve him. They alternate incubation duties and foraging with increasingly shorter shifts. If all goes well, the egg will hatch in about 60 days.