UPDATE: It's a boy! Albatross chick hatches 1-24-23. Fledges 9-16-23

[PinkDiamond]

The chick at the Northern Royal albatross cam I watch in New Zealand has hatched, and the parent is giving us glimpses of it occasionally. Also, the rangers seem to come by every day and I've caught them a few times and gotten to watch how they tap the parent's breast and the parent stands up, then they carefully take the chick, put it in a cotton bag, and then attach it to a scale and weigh the baby before carefully removing it from the bag, and placing it beneath the adult again, who settles right back down on it and keeps it warm. It's amazing that these birds have no fear of humans, but that's exactly what caused their near extinction when their feathers were all the rage. If all goes well the chick will be growing by leaps and bounds, and yet it will take nearly 2 months before it's ready to fledge. Here's the first shot I got of this little cutie, cut down so it will hopefully upload here for you.

Here's the link to the live cam. I've noticed it's almost always terribly windy in New Zealand, and it's overcast and rains quite a bit year round.

My stars, when I went to get the link for you the ranger had gotten there and the camera angle was good, and when she pulled out the baby it already looks to be nearly the size of a small mallard duck at only a few days old! It's a baby Huey!

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/cams/roya ... -306637205

[PinkDiamond]

It's too bad that the pic I posted of the chick as a baby disappeared, possibly due to the huge update to the forum's program when we were restored and updated, so hopefully anything I add from now on won't disappear.

It turns out this one is the first male I've seen, since it's the first one hatching on cam since 2017. The thing is huge now, a true baby Huey, and he loves to toddle around and often goes into the grass where I can't see him. He also does nest redecorating, and gets dirt on himself so it's a good thing it rains in New Zealand quite a lot or he'd be a real dirty bird. Don't forget, he just hatched in January.

It's a shame I had to cut so much off the screenshot to get it to upload here because this little guy has a spectacular view. Check him out.

The 2023 #RoyalCam Chick is a Male

"The last time there was a male chick on camera was in 2017 featuring the youngster named Tumanako. Knowing the sex of each chick helps inform the ranger team how each chick's growth is progressing. This season there are 19 females and 14 males on the headland, and as the chicks grow, males should become about 2 kg (4.4 lb) heavier than the females. If chicks aren't receiving enough food from their parents to meet their growth targets, the ranger team will supplement their feeding to help them achieve it.

Unfortunately, males are also more inclined to "spill oil", meaning that during stressful situations they are more likely to regurgitate foul-smelling stomach oils from their proventricularis, which can lead to their downy feathers getting saturated and not insulating them well. For this reason, the rangers will weigh the #RoyalCam chick less than we are normally accustomed to seeing.

Don't miss a moment of this epic 8-month-long breeding season for one of Earth's biggest fliers! Watch live. "
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/cams/royal-albatross/

[SwordfishMining]

Yes I know about the disappearing photos. I try to make links to the publishers site for the traffic instead of downloading them into my posts. What I cant explain is how WordPress loses photos I uploaded into my posts on the blog.

[PinkDiamond]

Born the end of January, the chick named Manaaki was 26.45 pounds at 158 days old on June 27th! He holds the title for being the largest chick in the colony, and I took this screenshot today and resized it to fit the forum, so I hope it comes out good and at least it's saved to my computer so it shouldn't disappear like the first shot of him as a baby did. Here's the local baby Huey wingercizing to prepare for that first fledge within the next few weeks. That's a big boy!

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/cams/roya ... -306637205

[crazy8s]

[PinkDiamond]

The rangers came and weighed all the chicks today, and the woman could barely get her arm around Manaaki. Take a look at the size of tubby-two-by-four these days, and he's still an unfledged chick less than 6 months old. Hard to believe, isn't it?! I remember when he was so little when he had just hatched, and now look at him.

[PinkDiamond]

I missed when they did this but they had a video of Manaaki being fritted with a tracking device that's not like the GPS they put on the last fledgling, and they will have to wait for him to return to the colony in a few years to retrieve the data and find out where he's been. They put the tracker on his leg and weighed him again before leaving him in his nest, as always.

[SwordfishMining]

It may not be as good of data time wise, but it is all the data for only who recovers the chip.

[PinkDiamond]

Manaaki looks hilarious trying to control his wings in the wind, and he got some lift in this clip, but not enough to fledge and then he had to walk back up the hill to get back to his nest.



His neighbor, Miss Quarry, is doing some nice maneuvers, and likely weighing less will probably fledge ahead of Manaaki at this rate. She gets blown right out of the frame and when the camera catches up with her she's a ways away and doing some nice hovering maneuvers. I love the feet flapping around in the wind. What a treat it is to get to see these birds practicing for that first flight.

[PinkDiamond]

A few days ago I saw something I've never seen on this cam before. The mother came and was feeding him when suddenly her crop regurgitated all the seafood she collected onto Manaaki's nest somewhere after the 3 minute mark. Gross! Another albatross was walking around and he was guarding the food from them.