Black-footed Albatross

Black-footed Albatross (Phoebastria nigripes) is a predominantly dark North Pacific albatross with long narrow wings, a pale area around the bill and dark legs and feet. Body shape, bill structure, plumage pattern and voice provide the strongest field characters. Age, sex and season may alter its appearance, so identification should combine several features and careful direct field comparisons with similar species in the same habitat (Wikipedia, general species account).

It travels widely over open ocean in search of squid, fish and other marine food, while most breeding birds gather in colonies on islands of the north-western Hawaiian chain. Its movements and social behaviour vary through the year, with breeding birds generally more dispersed and non-breeding birds gathering where food is concentrated. Japanese records place it within the country's documented avifauna as a resident, migrant or visitor (Wikipedia, general species account; Wildlife of Japan occurrence records).