* Yellow-nosed Albatross Thalassarche chlororynchos

Texas Coastal / Offshore Status: Four Texas records: Port Isabel, 14 May 1972; South Padre Island, 28 October 1976; San Jose Island 11 July 1997; Outer shelf off South Padre Island, 26 September 2003. The most recent sighting off South Padre Island appears to be the Indian Ocean race, which has a whiter head than the nominate South Atlantic race.

Gulf of Mexico Status: Two Florida Records: Offshore Tarpon Springs, 01 May 2000; Offshore Clearwater Pass, 09 November 2014 (eBird). Two Louisiana Records; 

RANGE: This species is found in both the South Atlantic and Southern Indian Oceans. Vagrant birds along the Texas coast have been encountered both on the immediate coast as well as in deep shelf waters.

Similar Species: Any “yellow-nosed” albatross sighting in Texas waters would require the elimination of at least Black-browed and Gray-headed Albatrosses, both of which have a circumpolar distribution in the southern oceans. Although the likelihood of either species showing up along Texas coast is remote, they would at least seem to be potential vagrants to the Gulf of Mexico. Of the three species, Yellow-nosed Albatross has the whitest color in the underwing (or narrowest black underwing margins).

*Texas Review Species, requiring written or photographic documentation.
© Copyright Brad McKinney October 31, 2004 (Status updated by Garett Hodne Nov 2022)

Seasonal Occurance

The graph below shows the number and date of all Yellow-nosed Albatross sightings in Texas. Only the Sept 26 sighting was on a Texas Pelagic in 2003:

Texas Pelagics Sightings Distribution 

Map 1) The live Google map above shows the geographic distribution of Yellow-nosed Albatross found in Offshore Texas from lat-long data I’ve captured from 35 years of Texas Pelagics. 
Click on the box in the upper left of the map to view the map legend.
Click on each sighting symbol and the data label will appear showing the time, date and the number of birds seen.
Click on the symbol on the top right of the map to view a larger map.

The next two map images are copied from eBird.

Map 2) The map below is zoomed into Texas and Louisiana to show individual locations.

Map 3) The bottom map is zoomed out to show the GOM, the northern Caribbean Sea and the adjacent western tropical Atlantic ocean.