Albatross Laid Her Egg on Livestream, and a Ranger Says She Was Loud

A female northern royal albatross known as L laid the first egg of the breeding season on Sunday morning at Pukekura/Taiaroa Head near Dunedin, New Zealand. Viewers of the Department of Conservation’s Royal Cam livestream watched it happen live. DOC says it is the first time Royal Cam viewers have seen an egg being laid.¹²

The Royal Cam points at a single albatross nest 24 hours a day. In practice that usually means watching a very large bird sit very still. This time, the audience got the main event.¹

It wasn’t a quiet one, either. DOC ranger Sharyn Broni said in the Otago Daily Times: “I have seen other toroa laying eggs, but none were as noisy as she was.”³

Who L is

Toroa is the Māori word for albatross, and the bird is a northern royal albatross. L is identified by her leg band, and her mate goes by GLY.¹

L returned to the colony on Oct. 13. Instead of building her own nest, she took over the one the Royal Cam had filmed the previous season.¹²

Related: Finland Has 5.66 Million People. Its Puppy Cam Got 6.5 Million Page Views

L and GLY are already taking turns sitting on the egg. It has not yet been checked for fertility, and DOC plans to do that in 10 to 12 days.¹³ Incubation lasts roughly 79 days, or about two and a half months.³

The rest of the colony

L was first, and others followed. Four more eggs had been laid at Pukekura since Sunday, according to Stuff and the Otago Daily Times.²³

L’s egg came about two weeks after a record-equal 38 toroa chicks finished fledging from the colony.²

The Royal Cam is run in partnership with Cornell University’s Lab of Ornithology in New York and attracts millions of views from around the world each year.¹² Karaitiana, a DOC spokesperson, was quoted by Stuff: “The Royal Cam is increasing people’s understanding of the life cycle and 11-month breeding season of toroa.”²

Why this colony matters

Pukekura/Taiaroa Head, at the tip of the Otago Peninsula, is the only mainland site in the world where northern royal albatross breed.¹

DOC co-manages the colony through Te Poari a Pukekura, a partnership with Te Rūnanga o Ōtākou, the Korako Karetai Trust and the Dunedin City Council, with support from the Otago Peninsula Trust.¹

Northern royal albatross are listed as globally Endangered.⁴

The next milestone is the fertility check in 10 to 12 days.¹