Light-Mantled Sooty Albatross
Phoebetria palpebrata
Family Diomedeidae
Critically Endangered — VIC: Critically Endangered, TAS: Vulnerable, SA: Vulnerable, WA: Near-Threatened, Bonn: Listed
About
The light-mantled albatross, also known as the grey-mantled albatross or the light-mantled sooty albatross, is a small albatross in the genus Phoebetria, which it shares with the sooty albatross. The light-mantled albatross was first described as Phoebetria palpebrata by Johann Reinhold Forster, in 1785, based on a specimen from south of the Cape of Good Hope.
How to spot it
The light-mantled albatross is largely sooty-brown or blackish, darker on the head, with paler upperparts from the nape to the upper tail-coverts which are grey to light grey, the palest on the mantle and back. The plumage has been described as being similar in appearance to the colouring of a Siamese cat.
Documented on these trails
Found in
- Discovery Bay Coastal Park — Great Ocean Road & the Otways hikes