Краткохвостый альбатрос: описание и восстановление популяции.

Species of bird

The short tailed albatross or Steller's albatross (Phoebastria albatrus) is a large rare seabird from the North Pacific. Although related to the other North Pacific albatrosses, it also exhibits behavioural and morphological links to the albatrosses of the Southern Ocean. It was described by the German naturalist Peter Simon Pallas from skins collected by Georg Wilhelm Steller (after whom its other common name is derived). Once common, it was brought to the edge of extinction by the trade in feathers, but with protection efforts underway since the 1950s, the species is in the process of recovering with an increasing population trend. It is divided into two distinct subpopulations, one of which breeds on Tori shima in the Izu islands south of Japan, and the other primarily on the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.

The short tailed albatross is a medium sized albatross, with a wingspan of , a length of and a body weight that can be Among standard measurements, the bill is long, the tail is long, the tarsus around and the wing chord Its plumage as an adult is overall white with black flight feathers, some coverts, as well as a black terminal bar on its tail. It has a yellow stained nape and crown. Its bill is large and pink; however, older birds will gain a blue tip. The juveniles are an all over brown colour, and they will whiten as they mature, in about 10 to 20 years. It can be distinguished from the other two species of albatross in its range, the Laysan albatross and the black footed albatross by its larger size and its pink bill (with a bluish tip), as well as details of its plumage. Contrary to its name its tail is no shorter than that of the Laysan or black footed, and is actually longer than that of the other member of the genus Phoebastria, the waved albatross.

Short tailed albatrosses now nest on four islands, with the majority of birds nesting on Tori shima, and almost all of the rest on Minami kojima in the Senkaku Islands. A female female pair began nesting on Kure in the late 2000s. A chick hatched on 14 January 2011 on Midway. Both Midway and Kure are in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. In 2012 a pair began incubating an egg on Muko jima, in the Bonin Islands, Japan. During non breeding season they range across the North Pacific, with the males and juveniles gathering in the Bering Sea, and the females feeding off the coast of Japan and eastern Russia. The species has been extirpated as a breeder from Kita no shima, Enewetak Atoll, Kobishi, and the Bonin Islands (Nishino Shima, Yomejima, and (until recently) Mukojima).

Short tailed albatrosses are a type of albatross that belong to the family Diomedeidae, order Procellariiformes, along with shearwaters, fulmars, storm petrels, and diving petrels. They share certain identifying features. First, they have nasal passages that attach to the upper bill called naricorns. Although the nostrils on the albatross are on the sides of the bill. The bills of Procellariiformes are also unique in that they are split into between seven and nine horny plates. Finally, they produce a stomach oil made up of wax esters and triglycerides that is stored in the proventriculus. This is used against predators as well as an energy rich food source for chicks and for the adults during their long flights. They also have a salt gland which is situated above the nasal passage helping desalinate their bodies, as an adaptation to the high amount of ocean water they imbibe. It excretes a high saline solution from their nose. The species is divided into two major clades/populations, one of which exclusively breeds on Tori shima, and the other breeds primarily on the Senkaku Islands with a small number on Tori shima. These two populations are genetically, morphologically, and behaviourally distinct, preferring to mate with their own kind, and as such it has been argued by some authors that they should be classified as two separate cryptic species.