An albatross with long, narrow wings that searches for food at the sea surface.
Adults have a white head and body with a golden crown and nape, plus a large pink bill. Young birds are dark brown.
At Hatsunezaki on Torishima, a new Short-tailed Albatross colony grew from one pair to hundreds. Researchers created the site using social attraction to reduce volcanic-eruption risk. One pair bred there each year from 1995 to 2003, followed by four pairs in 2004. Pair numbers then rose by 29.1% annually; in 2018–19, 389 pairs laid eggs and 285 chicks fledged.
The authors attributed much of the increase to birds moving from Tsubamezaki, another colony on Torishima. Among 791 colour-banded fledglings, first visits averaged 3.4 years and first breeding 6.2 years. Local growth may therefore reflect movement between colonies, not the same increase in the global population.
IUCN Red List · Vulnerable (VU), D2 · Global species-level assessment
BirdLife International’s global IUCN assessment listed the Short-tailed Albatross as Vulnerable (VU, D2) on 7 August 2018, with an increasing trend and an estimate of 1,734 mature individuals. The assessment recorded two breeding locations worldwide. The Hatsunezaki study reports 389 pairs laying in 2018–19, a later local breeding season; this colony record is not a replacement for a new global assessment. The figures describe different dates and geographic scopes.