Several birds in this all dark phase of the Short-tailed Albatross were seen in 1998. Reisa Latorra took the above photo on board the F/V Taasinge August 11, 1998 near the Shumagin Islands. We had sightings from Cape Ommaney to Unalaska for a total of 23 separate reports of the juvenile Short-tailed Albatross. Juvenile birds will be at sea for at least 4 years and up to 10 years before returning to the colony to breed. The photo below was taken by Hilary Emberton near Cape Clear near Prince Willam Sound on July 18th, 1998.

While on board the F/V Sand Island on June 12 we saw these 2 adult birds pictured below. Neither bird had leg bands, encouraging, since most of them have been banded. These individuals may be from a different colony than the one on Torishimi Island. They followed the vessel for several hours while we hauled gear.

We spotted these subadults off Kodiak Island on July 20th (pictured below). They approached the boat closer than any of the other Short-tails we saw all summer. Both birds were banded, the bird on the left had an orange band and the one on the right had a yellow leg band. Subadults are in between the juvenile and adult plumage and will show a varying amount of white in their feathers.