Figure 36. The Laysan Albatross occurs regularly off California’s northern and central coast in late fall and winter. This first-fall bird was photographed on 24 October 1971 off Eureka, Humboldt County (1981-021; Ron Jurek).

 

LAYSAN ALBATROSS Phoebastria immutabilis (Rothschild, 1893)

Accepted: 15 (88%)	Treated in Appendix H: no
Not accepted: 2	CBRC review: records from 1971–1983
Not submitted/reviewed: NA	Larger image with caption: click here

This seabird breeds on islands strung along the Tropic of Cancer off Japan, in the central Pacific Ocean, and very locally off western Mexico. Dispersal takes birds as far north as the southern Bering Sea, and the species is a rare spring migrant to the head of the Gulf of California (Newcomer and Silber 1989). Nine spring and early summer records exist from the Southwestern interior, most at or near the Salton Sea (Dunn and Unitt 1977, Patten and Minnich 1997, NAB 60:436); one is from Yuma, Arizona (Rosenberg et al. 1991).

On the specimen tag for the first Laysan Albatross to be found in California—on 5 April 1909 at San Nicolas Island in Ventura County (MCZ 16509)—Clarence B. Linton wrote, “Killed by Mexican ‘camp cook’— head cut off and body cooked, during my absence.” But Linton identified the head as that of a Short-tailed Albatross, a mistake perpetuated by Howell (1917) until Peters (1938) set the record straight. The Laysan Albatross remained on the CBRC’s review list for several years despite being regarded as a regular visitor well offshore, especially during late fall and winter (Roberson 1980, Stallcup 1990). Comparatively few records were reviewed, and numerous documented/published occurrences from the review periods were never submitted. For example, Briggs et al. (1987) surveyed waters off central and northern California from 1980 through early 1983 and logged 33 sightings; “all but two (August 1982) were seen in November through April, and all but five were north of Monterey Bay.” Later high counts off central and northern California include 59 on 14 December 1991 roughly 100 nautical miles off Pt. Reyes (AB 46:310) and 45 on 8 December 1988 in Mendocino and Humboldt Counties (AB 43:361). An individual known to many birders has wintered at Pt. Arena Cove, Mendocino County, annually from 1994/1995 through 2006/2007. The species is rare off southern California, where Briggs et al. (1987) encountered only seven individuals during pelagic surveys conducted between 1975 and early 1978.

Starting in the early 1980s, Laysan Albatrosses colonized several Pacific islands off the coast of Mexico: Isla Guadalupe, Rocas Alijos, and the Islas San Benedicto and Isla Clarión in the Revillagigedo Archipelago (Pitman 1985, Dunlap 1988, Howell and Webb 1992, Gallo-Reynoso and Figueroa-Carranza 1996). Multiple birds have been observed since the early 1990s around San Nicolas Island during late spring (AB 45:495, fide W. Wehtje; see also Peters 1938).

Dunn (1988) discussed a record not accepted from Long Beach, Los Angeles County, as well as a report of four that rode a ship into the port at Oakland, Alameda County. A record on 1 April 1991 comes from the streets of Alameda in Alameda County, and the carcass of a bird that had been observed from 15 to 24 March 1991 at Whiskeytown Reservoir in Shasta County (HSU 8164) had a neat rectangle of thick paint on its forehead that it could not have acquired naturally (NAB 45:492).

Laysan and Black-footed Albatrosses occasionally hybridize, as reviewed by McKee and Pyle (2002), but a bird of this mixed parentage has yet to be documented in California waters. See also the Short-tailed Albatross account.