[00:00.41]The greatest ocean wanderer,
[00:02.67]with its two-metre wingspan,
[00:05.10]is the albatross.
[00:06.60]To find enough food for its oversized offspring,
[00:09.64]this black-footed albatross may have travelled
[00:11.87]a staggering 6,000 miles across the open ocean
[00:15.64]looking for hot spots of squid and fish.
[00:18.66]The albatross nest on the tiny Hawaiian islands of French Frigate Shoals.
[00:23.28]This island may be only half a mile long,
[00:26.05]but it provides a base for around 300,000 seabirds.
[00:30.99]With food so hard to come by in the open ocean,
[00:34.20]newly hatched sooty tern chicks are easy pickings for the larger frigate birds.
[00:46.22]For hours on end, they survey the nesting grounds,
[00:48.77]waiting for a chance to strike.
[00:51.76]A mother tries desperately to protect her helpless chick.
[00:56.65]But an unguarded chick is desperately vulnerable.
[01:00.40]It's what the frigate has been waiting for.
[01:03.86]No wonder the crew of the Essex called them the "man-of-war" birds.
[01:08.69]For two weeks,
[01:09.86]the frigate birds keep up their relentless aerial assault
[01:12.33]until finally the sooty tern chicks are old enough to get away.
[01:12.33]