A pair of Waved Albatrosses, Diomedea irrorata, engaging in typical courtship behaviour. Photographed in Punta Suarez, Isla Española, Galápagos, Ecuador.
Waved Albatrosses are the only Albatross species breeding in the Tropics. Almost all pairs nest on Isla Española, which is the most southerly island in the Galápagos archipelago, and also one of the two oldest of the current islands. They start nest-building in April and the last of the youngsters leave the island in January. Although a few individual birds may stay on or around the island, most spend January to March feeding further south and south-east in the continental shelf off Ecuador and Peru, but some are occasionally seen off the coast of Colombia.
Their courtship behaviour is very elaborate, involving not only mutual preening as in the photo, but also stylised ‘dancing’ steps and postures.
Their name comes from the wavy pattern (‘vermiculations’) on parts of their body plumage.
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