Albatross chick can't believe how badly its parent fluffed its landing
Was it a freak wind gust? Was it just a clumsy albatross?
This we can say for sure: that this royal albatross totally fluffing its landing is the laugh you need to get to the other side of the hump this Wednesday.
The ungainly avian moment was captured on Tuesday March 9 on the live cam at the Royal Albatross Centre at New Zealand’s Taiaroa Head nature reserve – a windswept headland just outside Dunedin on the far South Island.
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— RoyalAlbatrossCam (@RoyAlbatrossCam) March 6, 2021
Flying for the albatross is mainly effortless, landing can be a little bit harder. #RoyalCam chick had a front row seat to a ‘how not to land’ lesson.
Lucky for the somersaulting alby, recovery was quick and only the chick was watching!!https://t.co/9A481yiiom pic.twitter.com/WsPGdxsu1g
It's currently albatross breeding season, and if an albatross chick could facepalm, we're pretty sure this one would have done it. It certainly apeared to glance off to the left as though to say, "Geez, hope no one else saw that".
So what caused the crash landing?
Well, weather data for the Dunedin area yesterday reveals that there were moderate sea breezes – but nothing above about 30 km/h, which is barely a zephyr in an albatross's world.
Indeed, you can see a distinct lack of white caps in the sea, so it really can't have been too breezy.
More likely, the albatross was out of practise.
Image: That landing was an albatrocity! Source: NZ Department of Conservation.
"An alabatross doesn't hit the ground much. Sometimes they don't touch down for a year," Dr John Martin from Taronga Zoo told Weatherzone.
Dr Martin said that albatrosses can often be seen from the cliffs of Sydney at places like Maroubra, although they rarely land in the Sydney area.
Presumably that's because there are few suitable nesting sites near a big city. Then again, you can understand why they might hate landing in front of an audience.