Quiz!
Whose curly-headed baby bird is this?
Here are some hints:
- He is on an island in the Pacific Ocean.
- His species is critically endangered because 99.9% of them nest this island only.
- His parents built no nest. His mother laid his egg on bare ground.
- It took two months for this baby to hatch, then six more months before he can fly.
- His parents feed him regurgitated oil derived from fish, squid and crustaceans.
- Sometimes he must wait a long time between feedings because his parents travel 6 to 60 miles to find food.
- He is one of 22 species in this family of birds (species count from BirdLife International).
- A famous poem tells us it’s very bad luck to kill this type of bird.
Do you know who he is? Leave a comment with your answer.
UPDATE at 9:45am: Most of you guessed the family of birds correctly. Can any of you guess the exact species? Hint: This is a tropical island.
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(photo by Deborah Acklin)
Albatross?
Albatross!
My guess is an altabross, oops spelling is off, but you know what I mean!!!
He’s an albatross.
The bad luck clue must mean an Albatross!
Blue footed booby? Albatross?
I take it back … it’s an albatross chick …. or maybe a chick just having a bad hair day 🙂
It’s an albatross.
albatross?
Hi Kate!
This is my first time posting to your blog although I have enjoyed reading it for some time now.
I am guessing this bird is an albatross
An albatross perhaps.
From the beak it looks like a blue-footed booby.
Albatross~! ^_^
It is an albatross, but I can’t tell you the species. I didn’t know there are 22 different species.
From “The Ancient Mariner”, it is an Albatross.
Congratulations also on the Steeler win.
After further reading (isn’t Wikipedia wonderful!), I’ll guess a Waved Albatross from the Galapagos Islands since the article I read (assuming it’s right) says they are the only species to lay their eggs with no nest.
Congratulations, Mary Ann Pike! You’ve got the EXACT species.
I saw the picture and for some reason it seemed very familiar, like I’ve seen that species before. Couldn’t come up with a name though. Must’ve seen it on one of the nature shows I’ve watched.