The Chatham Islands is home to number of endemic birds. The most famous species of the islands are the Taiko (Magenta Petrel) and also the Albatross. The Taiko came periously close to extinction before being saved through conservation efforts.

Chatham Islands (2001) 15 Dollars - The Chatham Islands Taiko (Magenta Petrel) (right) and The Albatross (left)

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The Chatham Island Taiko (Magenta Petrel) is one of the world's most endangered seabirds with a total world population of around 120 individuals. Found only on the Chatham Islands, 800 kilometres east of New Zealand, it was believed to have been extinct for 111 years until it was dramatically rediscovered on New Years Day 1978.
The Chatham Island Taiko (Magenta Petrel)
The Magenta Petrel or Chatham Island Taiko (Pterodroma magentae) is a small seabird in the gadfly petrel genus, Pterodroma.
The first specimen of the Magenta Petrel was collected from His Italian Majesty's ship Magenta on July 22, 1867 in the South Pacific ocean, midway between New Zealand and South America. The link between it and the presumed-extinct Chatham Island Taiko was only confirmed when the first Taiko was caught on Chatham Island, New Zealand by David Crockett on January 1, 1978. Formerly widespread on Chatham Island, the Taiko is now confined to one forested valley system on the south-west of the island.

This medium-sized petrel has a brownish-grey back and wings, the undersides of the wings are brown and the belly is white. It has a black bill and pink legs. Adults weigh 400-600g and nest in 1-3m long burrows under dense forest.

This species is classified as critically endangered due to an assumed 80% decline in population in the last 60 years and the fact that it is restricted to one small location. The current population is estimated at between 100 and 150 individuals. In the 2005 breeding season, the 13 known breeding pairs successfully fledged 11 chicks. It is often referred to as the world's rarest seabird.

Since then a dedicated group of volunteers, landowners, New Zealand's Department of Conservation and The Chatham Island Taiko Trust have been working to learn more about the Taiko and to bring it back from the brink of extinction.
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Albatrosses are large seabirds allied to the procellariids, storm-petrels and diving-petrels in the order Procellariiformes (the tubenoses). They range widely in the Southern Ocean and the North Pacific. They are absent from the North Atlantic, although fossil remains show they once occurred there too and occasional vagrants turn up. Albatrosses are amongst the largest of flying birds, and the great albatrosses (genus Diomedea) have the largest wingspans of any extant birds. The albatrosses are usually regarded as falling into four genera, but there is disagreement over the number of species.

Albatrosses are highly efficient in the air, using dynamic soaring and slope soaring to cover great distances with little exertion. They feed on squid, fish and krill by either scavenging, surface seizing or diving.
The wingspans of the largest great albatrosses (genus Diomedea) are the largest of any bird, exceeding 340 cm (over 11 feet), although the other species' wingspans are considerably small. Albatrosses are so well adapted to this lifestyle that their heart rates while flying are close to their basal heart rate when resting. This efficiency is such that the most energetically demanding aspect of a foraging trip is not the distance covered, but the landings, take-offs and hunting they undertake having found a food source. This efficient long-distance travelling underlies the albatross's success as a long-distance forager, covering great distances and expending little energy looking for patchily distributed food sources. Albatrosses are colonial, nesting for the most part on remote oceanic islands, often with several species nesting together. Pair bonds between males and females form over several years, with the use of 'ritualised dances', and will last for the life of the pair. A breeding season can take over a year from laying to fledging, with a single egg laid in each breeding attempt.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia. Read the full Wikipedia articles "Albatross" and "Magenta Petrel".