What Do an Albatross and Alicia Silverstone Have in Common?

Actress Alicia Silverstone, best known for her role in the 1995 movie Clueless, made headlines later for feeding her baby pre-chewed food directly from her mouth. It’s an unusual way to feed a human baby, but many bird parents, including the Northern Royal Albatross, regurgitate food for their young. This albatross dad may not be an actor, but he’s featured in his first season on the RoyalCam in the Taiaroa Head Nature Reserve in New Zealand. As we can see, these impressive regurgitation skills are well-received by baby birds, but the Alicia Silverstone method is unlikely to catch on with humans anytime soon.

Feeding by Regurgitation

When birds hatch, they are either dependent on their parents for food or they can leave the nest to forage on their own. They are categorized as either altricial or precocial, respectively. Altricial bird species with dependent offspring typically rely on both parents to feed the young via regurgitation. This does not necessarily mean the food is always partially digested; rather, the adult bird has swallowed and carried the food to the young in its crop. The crop is a pouch in the lower esophagus where birds store food before digestion.

Sea birds like albatrosses, gulls, pelicans, and penguins regurgitate partially digested food for their young. Parrots, parakeets, and cockatiels also feed their offspring by regurgitating food they stored in their crops. Similarly, birds such as crows, ravens, robins, woodpeckers, and hummingbirds regurgitate food for their chicks. The regurgitated food is also not always solid. Flamingos, doves, pigeons, and male emperor penguins secrete a fluid called crop “milk” that is regurgitated into their hungry babies’ mouths.

Northern Royal Albatross Foraging and Breeding Behavior

Albatross parents forage for food from the surface of the ocean. They sometimes fly thousands of miles to gather enough food for themselves and their offspring. Albatrosses are both predators and scavengers. So, their diet primarily consists of fish, squid, octopus, crustaceans, and carrion, which is the flesh of dead creatures. Parents survive by taking turns foraging for food and feeding their young.

Northern Royal Albatrosses only return to land when they are ready to breed and raise chicks. They usually breed at the same location with the same partner their entire lives. Albatross parents only breed every two years so they have a year off to gather strength. Both parents share the work of feeding and caring for their offspring for around six weeks. Then, chicks are on their own except for feeding visits every few days to once a week. This schedule will continue until the chicks can fly at around 7-8 months old.

Feeding a Baby Albatross

Like all birds, albatrosses have an organ called the proventriculus, similar to a human stomach. The proventriculus is connected to the crop. The stored food moves from the crop further into the digestive system where enzymes break it down.

The proventriculus removes the water and turns the fish oils and meat into a concentrated mixture for the albatross parents to feed their chicks. So, whatever the parents eat, the chick will also consume. This concentrate has enough nutrients to provide for the chick for several days. The albatross dad above was right on time to deliver his hungry baby a healthy meal. Hopefully, it will keep this little one fed until it’s mom’s turn to serve dinner.