Another sighting of a Black-browed Albatross in the northern hemisphere

 The Minsmere Black-browed Albatross, July 2015, photograph by Peter Hobbs

Black-browed Albatrosses Thalassarche melanophris are meant to be strictly birds of the higher latitudes of the southern hemisphere but occasionally individuals are seen north of the equator.  The latest sighting to hand is of a bird, reported to be an adult, that was spotted flying south down the United Kingdom’s Suffolk coastline on 28 September.  The albatross was first seen two miles (3 km) out to sea near Lowestoft by a local birder (click here).   “It is understood to be only the second recorded sighting of the species in Suffolk – having last been seen off the North Sea and at the RSPB Minsmere Reserve in July 2015.”

Sightings of single Black-browed Albatrosses are made north of the equator in the Atlantic Ocean from time time (click here), including in recent years from Canada and from Denmark.  Perhaps last month’s bird was the same one that was seen farther north on the English coast sitting with Northern Gannets on the Bempton Cliffs in July this year (click here).  Read more earlier UK records of Black-browed Albatrosses here

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 06 October 2020