Quiz: Whose Baby?


Quiz!

Whose curly-headed baby bird is this?

Here are some hints:

  • He is on an island in the Pacific Ocean.
  • His species is critically endangered because 99.9% of them nest this island only.
  • His parents built no nest.  His mother laid his egg on bare ground.
  • It took two months for this baby to hatch, then six more months before he can fly.
  • His parents feed him regurgitated oil derived from fish, squid and crustaceans.
  • Sometimes he must wait a long time between feedings because his parents travel 6 to 60 miles to find food.
  • He is one of 22 species in this family of birds (species count from BirdLife International).
  • A famous poem tells us it’s very bad luck to kill this type of bird.

Do you know who he is?  Leave a comment with your answer. 

UPDATE at 9:45am:  Most of you guessed the family of birds correctly.  Can any of you guess the exact species?  Hint: This is a tropical island.

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(photo by Deborah Acklin)

18 thoughts on “Quiz: Whose Baby?

  1. Hi Kate!

    This is my first time posting to your blog although I have enjoyed reading it for some time now.
    I am guessing this bird is an albatross

  2. After further reading (isn’t Wikipedia wonderful!), I’ll guess a Waved Albatross from the Galapagos Islands since the article I read (assuming it’s right) says they are the only species to lay their eggs with no nest.

  3. I saw the picture and for some reason it seemed very familiar, like I’ve seen that species before. Couldn’t come up with a name though. Must’ve seen it on one of the nature shows I’ve watched.

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