Over 16,000 juvenile Black-browed Albatross have been marked with orange paint in order to monitor their flight path from their nest site on Steeple Jason, a remote Falkland island. Young albatross do not return to their breeding site for the first seven years of their life. This project will help to shed light on where the birds go after fledging.

Falklands Conservation team spent ten days on the Island to undertake the marking project.
Transport by helicopter was kindly provided by the military.

Steeple Jason has a massive colony of 150,000 breeding pairs of Black-browed Albatross which stretches along 2 1/2 miles of coast. Surveys show a population decline of 85,000 in the Falklands Black-browed Albatross numbers since 1995. The paint, which lasts 3-4 months, will be used to help monitor the birds. It is a totally harmless yet effective way of tracking and will aid in the search as to why there is such a decline.

Young Black-browed Albatross with orange markings at the Steeple Jason colony.

Falklands Conservation have enlisted the help of many organisations and individuals associated with seabird conservation and shipping activity from around the world. The sightings at sea will help establish whether Black-browed Albatross are likely to have any interaction with fishing vessels in South Atlantic waters. Nic Huin, Falklands Conservation Albatross researcher, said: "This project will give us the first glimpses of where these young birds go, without the huge expense of satellite tracking. In turn this will provide a basis for longer-term study on the species".

Falklands Conservation is asking the local community to keep an eye out for the orange marked birds, but also have people on the lookout throughout Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil. Anecdotal evidence suggests the birds will concentrate on southern Brazil so the project is working particularly closely with the Instituto Florestal-Wildlife Service in Brazil who are training and deploying observers in this key area from May to August. However, the birds could be sighted anywhere in the Southern Hemisphere so birders have been alerted in Australia, New Zealand and southern Africa. And the first sighting a painted bird has already been reported following a yacht near Mar del Plata in Argentina.