Stomach contents of seven Short-tailed Albatross Phoebastria albatrus in the eastern North Pacific and Bering Sea

Marine Ornithology 43: 169–172 (2015) Information about the relationship between any marine bird and its food web is critical to assessing or monitoring population status. Changes in the food web structure over time can be a major determining factor in population growth. In addition, a species’ position in the food web is largely determined by whether it is a predator or scavenger. While the foraging habitat use and movements of the endangered Short-tailed Albatross Phoebastria albatrus has been well documented, there is a lack of definitive information on its diet (Suryan et al. 2006, Piatt et al. 2006). To date, all prey accounts for this species have been confined to personal communications of cursory field observations of regurgitations by adult birds returning to nesting sites during the breeding season (Austin 1949, Hasegawa & DeGange 1982). It is extremely difficult to identify food remains, particularly cephalopods, at a species level reliably, based solely on field observations of regurgitated specimens unless made under controlled conditions. As a result, these kinds of accounts, while useful, are only reliable in terms of general categories, e.g. cephalopods, fish and crustaceans.