The Royal Albatross nests consistently in only a handful of places in the Southern hemisphere. The only colony with easy access and reliable albatross sightings is at the very tip of the Otago Peninsula. The following photographs depict the most ridiculous bird in the skies: the 747 of volant avians. These birds can only fly efficiently when it is EXTREMELY windy outside, and they have the largest wingspan of any bird living today.To contrast this Boeing Bird, check out the birds in the other photo, some of the largest birds in evolutionary history. This scene depicts a Haast's eagle, the world's largest eagle EVER (about 12 ft wingspan) attacking 2 moas, the iconic extinct flightless bird that was endemic to new zealand. There were about 14 species of these guys, ranging from 4 ft high to over 12 ft high. These ratite birds went extinct when the Maori came over from Polynesia around 1000AD and began hunting these abundant grazers (population of between 5 and 12 million) in mass numbers. They went extinct 200 years after the Maori arrived. Before the Maori arrived, these Haast's eagle were the only predators of these Ostrich-Cows. Birds of all shapes and sizes!
Ornithologically,
E.M. Keen, Patrician-elect
