The Campbell albatross or Campbell mollymawk, is a medium-sized mollymawk in the albatross family. It breeds only on Campbell Island and the associated islet of Jeanette Marie, in a small New Zealand island group in the South Pacific. It is sometimes considered a subspecies of the black-browed albatross. It is a medium-sized black and white albatross with a pale yellow iris.
Image: 070226 Campbell mollymawk off Kaikoura 1
Image: Thalassarche impavida 2 SE Tasmania
Juvenile
Adult in flight
The mollymawks are a group of medium-sized albatrosses that form the genus Thalassarche. The name has sometimes been used for the genus Phoebetria as well, but these are usually called sooty albatrosses. They are restricted to the Southern Hemisphere, where they are the most common of the albatrosses. They were long considered to be in the same genus as the great albatrosses, Diomedea, but a study of their mitochondrial DNA showed that they are a monophyletic taxon related to the sooty albatrosses, and they were placed in their own genus.
Mollymawk
Black-browed albatross (Thalassarche melanophris) skeleton on display at the Museum of Osteology
Image: Yellow nosed Albatross CW
Image: Thalassarche carteri SE Tasmania