New Zealand albatross face-plants on livestream

CNN — Birds are often synonymous with grace, elegance and agility. In a live stream shared online, a northern royal albatross in New Zealand managed to face-plant spectacularly upon landing – and the animal’s uncoordinated descent has brought joy to thousands of viewers. The video, captured Saturday at Taiaroa Head near the city of Dunedin on New Zealand’s South Island, shows a downy six-week-old albatross chick chirping at an incoming adult, who is trying to time its landing. “Albatrosses in general have a remarkable engineering and they are designed for flight at sea or ‘dynamic soaring.’ They can lock their wings out and soar over the sea for hours on end,” Rory Crawford, manager of the albatross task force at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, told CNN Tuesday. Discussing whether the albatross would be embarrassed by such clumsiness, Crawford said that the birds “have these elaborate courtship rituals, which are normally quite choreographed, so being seen to have your act together would be important.” The albatrosses at Taiaroa Head are vulnerable because of “slow reproduction rates, changes in habitat and climate, and some fishing practices,” according to the DOC’s website.