Finally, they produce a stomach oil made up of wax esters and triglycerides that are stored in the proventriculus.

[7] The northern royal albatross was first described as Diomedea sanfordi by Robert Cushman Murphy, in 1917, based on a specimen from the Chatham Islands.

The northern royal albatross feeds on cephalopods, fish, crustaceans, salps, and carrion.

They prefer to be in grass or herbs, and their nest is a low mound of vegetation, mud, and feathers.

[8] A single egg is laid, in October or November, which takes both parents around 80 days to incubate.

When they are not breeding, northern royal albatrosses undertake circumpolar flights in the southern oceans, and in particular like the Humboldt Current and the Patagonian Shelf.

Chicks and eggs of birds breeding on the South Island have also been preyed upon by introduced species, such as cats, bottle flies, and stoats.

1972 saw the first formal guided viewing of their breeding area, since 2001 more than 100,000 people visit the Royal Albatross Centre annually to watch this species.

[3] It has become a tradition in Dunedin each year to chime the bells in the city's public buildings in celebration of the first bird to arrive back at the Taiaroa Head colony.