The Albatrosses of Bird Island

The Albatrosses of Bird Island

The documentary follows a young British ornithologist as she studies the albatross species who return every year to the remote Bird Island in the Antarctic Ocean to breed.

No other creature travels as quickly or as far as an albatross; these amazing birds have been known to circumnavigate the globe in just a few weeks. But when they do need to seek out solid ground to breed, then often that ground is Bird Island. On this tiny island in the stormy Antarctic Ocean, tens of thousands of albatrosses come to nest; among them the Wandering albatross, which with a span of 3.5 meters has the longest wings in the world and whose energy-efficient flight technique is being researched by engineers around the globe. He shares the island with three other species of albatross: the Black-browed, the Grey-headed and the Sooty albatross. For more than 50 years, the birds who return faithfully to Bird Island have been the subject of scientific observation - longer than anywhere else in the world. We accompany a young British ornithologist as she lives and works in a small research station of the British Antarctic Survey on the island, 1,400 kilometers from the nearest port. For 30 months, she will roam through the nest colonies, recording every bird and every egg and make astonishing findings about these birds. Above all, however, the aim is to preserve the population, because the numbers of Wandering albatrosses on Bird Island have more than halved in recent decades – the hooks of longliner fishing vessels represent a particular danger for the birds.

30 min. English version