Albatross facts

• Albatrosses have the longest wingspan of any bird.
• As adults they spend years out on the open ocean, flying for thousands of miles.¹ They can cover almost 1,000km a day without flapping their wings, and have been known to travel 16,000km in a single foraging trip.²
• They commonly mate for life, although divorce amongst albatrosses is becoming increasingly common, possibly due to climate change.³
• 15 of the world’s 22 albatross species are endangered. Swordfish, tuna and other fishing fleets are killing more than 100,000 albatrosses every year.⁴
• Wandering albatrosses can gorge themselves so much on ship garbage that they become unable to fly and must float on the water to recover.⁵
• A single wandering albatross can fly the equivalent of 10 times to the moon and back over their lifetime.⁶
• The world’s oldest living albatross is Wisdom, a Laysan albatross who is over 74 years old. Over her lifetime she has produced over 50 eggs.
• Albatrosses are one of the few animals able to drink seawater. They have evolved salt glands behind their eyes that filter out excess salt from their blood.⁷
• Albatrosses listen to low frequencies of sound called infrasound to help them navigate when they at sea. The sound, which is typically inaudible to humans, is produced when waves crash together or against coastlines.⁸
• Adult albatrosses are renowned for their intricate courtship dance displays which they practise for years to perfect. Wandering albatross pairs, for example, break out a series of at least 22 distinct dance moves, including head rolling, wing spreading, and beak-clacking.⁹

Albatrosses are birds that spend most of their lives at sea, soaring over the oceans hunting for fish, before returning to their breeding grounds on isolated islands. Members of the biological family Diomedeidae, these colossal birds have giant wingspans, exceeding three metres in some cases. They are truly masters of the sea, using their strong wings to ride thermal currents, and soaring above the waves with little exertion. As adults, they spend years out on the open ocean, flying for thousands of miles.¹⁰ They can cover almost 1,000km a day without flapping their wings, and have been known to travel 16,000km in a single foraging trip.¹¹

When they are ready to breed they return to the same colony, often found on some of the world’s most remote islands. They commonly mate for life, although divorce amongst albatrosses is becoming increasingly common, possibly due to climate change.¹² Females lay one egg at a time, and parents will take it in turns to incubate the egg while the other hunts for food. Fledgling albatrosses take a long time to grow and reach maturity. Depending on the species they can spend five to 10 years at sea before they are ready to return to land to mate.¹³

Their Latin name, Diomedea, was coined by Carl Linnaeus, the father of modern taxonomy. It refers to the ancient Greek legend of Diomedes, a warrior whose companions were transformed into birds.

There are 22 species of albatross. Perhaps the most well-known member of the albatross family is the wandering albatross, also known as the snowy albatross. This feathered giant has the largest wingspan of any bird on the planet – a whopping 3.5m.  It breeds mostly on islands just to the north of the Antarctic Circle, but ranges across the entire Southern Ocean.¹⁴

The black-browed albatross is the most frequently encountered of the family. This bird is native to the Southern Oceans, with 70% of the world’s population breeding on the Falkland Islands.  South Georgia, an island in the South Atlantic Ocean is another popular breeding spot. There are estimated to be 1.4 million mature black-browed albatrosses in the world.¹⁵

The grey-headed albatross (Thalassarche chrysostoma), light-mantled sooty albatross (Phoebetria palpebrata), and wandering albatross also breed on South Georgia.

15 of the world’s 22 albatross species are endangered. This includes the Chatham albatross (Thalassarche eremita), a medium-sized black-and-white albatross which breeds only on The Pyramid, a large rock stack in the Chatham Islands, New Zealand. According to estimates, there are only around 5000 breeding pairs left of the Chatham albatross in the world.¹⁶

Researchers have discovered that trawling and longline fishing boats – where fishing vessels set lines containing thousands of baited hooks – are killing more than 100,000 albatrosses every year.¹⁷  Wandering albatrosses, for example, are attracted to the baited hooks set by tuna longliners. The albatrosses try to eat the bait and get dragged under and drowned. Collisions with trawl net cables are also a significant cause of mortality.

This is having a concerning impact on albatross populations. All species of albatross lay just a single egg at one time, and many species only breed every other year. In addition, most take 10 years to reach maturity before they can successfully breed. Taken together, this means albatrosses have one of the lowest reproductive rates of any bird. Albatrosses are very long-lived birds, with some individuals living to over 60 years of age. However as so many are now being killed, many populations are in rapid decline.

The wandering albatross holds the record for the largest seabird, with a wingspan reaching 3.5m and a body mass of 8–12kg.¹⁸To put that in perspective, an adult hippo has a body length of around 3.5m. Other species of albatross are somewhat smaller, although no less majestic. These larger species of albatross include the royal albatross (D. epomophora), with a wingspread of around 315cm  –  about the same length as a tiger – and the Amsterdam albatross (D. amsterdamensis), which has a wingspread of 280–340cm (9–11ft). The black-browed albatross (Thalassarche melanophris), meanwhile, has a wingspread of about 230cm (7.5ft), while both the black-footed albatross (Diomedea nigripes) and Laysan albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis) have a wingspan of around 200cm (6.5ft).¹⁹

Most albatrosses live in the cold waters of the southern hemisphere. They spend most of their time hunting and foraging out at sea and are rarely seen on land. When they do gather to breed, they form large colonies on remote islands. South Georgia, an island in the South Atlantic Ocean around 1,400km east of the Falkland Islands, is one such remote outcrop. The wandering albatross, black-browed albatross, grey-headed albatross and light-mantled sooty albatross all return to breed here.²⁰

However, a few albatrosses live outside of the southern hemisphere. These include the black-footed albatross, native to the Hawaiian archipelago and a few nearby islands; the short-tailed albatross, which breeds near Japan; the Laysan albatross of the North Pacific; and the waved albatross, which lives off the coast of the Galápagos Islands and the coasts of Ecuador, Peru, and Chile.²¹

Albatrosses are notably absent from the North Atlantic, although they can sometimes enter this region if they drift off course. However, fossil remains of a breeding colony of short-tailed albatross dating to around 400,000 years ago were discovered in Bermuda in 2003, showing albatross once lived there.²² Researchers found intact eggshells and bones of embryos, juveniles, and adults. The extinction of short-tailed albatrosses in the North Atlantic may have been caused by a rise in sea levels, which made albatross nesting sites vulnerable to storm surges. Short-tailed albatrosses are now a critically endangered species confined to a few islets in the northwestern Pacific Ocean.

Albatrosses primarily feed on squid, fish, krill, and sometimes crustaceans. When they detect prey, they swoop down to land on the surface, catching the creature with their large bills which can reach 18cm in length.²³ Sometimes albatrosses can also dive into the water to capture prey beneath the surface, an incredible feat given that it was previously thought that albatrosses were not good divers.  For example, a study by the University of Oxford found that black-browed albatrosses can dive up to 19m (62ft) into the sea in pursuit of their prey, staying under water for up to 52 seconds.²⁴ Albatrosses have also been known to feed using a somewhat unusual method. At night, they have been observed spinning around on the surface of the ocean, sometimes for hours at a time. The movement causes bioluminescent animals in the local vicinity to glow, attracting squid which the albatross then eats.²⁵

Albatrosses are also known to follow ships for days in the hope of scavenging a tasty meal, feeding on garbage and offal. They have also been known to scavenge the meat of floating carcasses.²⁶ Wandering albatrosses can gorge themselves so much on ship garbage that they become unable to fly and must rest for a while, floating on the water.²⁷

Interestingly, albatrosses are one of the few animals able to drink seawater. Seawater is too salty for most animals – including humans – to drink as it dangerously dehydrates the body. However, as albatrosses spend months at a time flying in the open ocean, they have evolved salt glands behind their eyes that filter out excess salt from their blood. The glands excrete a concentrated salt solution, which then drains out through the tip of the beak.²⁸

Albatrosses are known to fly for extremely long distances. A single wandering albatross, for example, can fly the equivalent of 10 times to the moon and back over their lifetime.²⁹ When raising chicks, albatrosses range far and wide looking for food to bring back to their offspring. Wandering albatrosses are known to travel more than 10,000km in a single foraging trip, travelling from Antarctica to sub-tropical waters on trips lasting between 10–20 days.³⁰ The wandering albatross can fly nearly 800km in a single day, with just an occasional flap of its wings.

Once their young have fledged the nest and flown away, parent albatrosses often take a year off breeding, and most species migrate long distances. Some, like wandering and grey-headed albatrosses, circumnavigate the entire Southern Ocean. Birds can travel 1,000km in a single day, with one grey-headed albatross recorded as travelling the whole way around Antarctica in just 46 days.³¹

Albatrosses use their formidable wingspans to catch and ride air currents, allowing them to soar just above the ocean surface without expending undue energy on flapping. Researchers have modelled their flight and found that they stay aloft by alternately soaring and diving between currents of air moving at different speeds – a flight pattern known as dynamic soaring.³²

However this means that albatrosses are very reliant on winds to help them fly. Some larger species of albatrosses, for example, are so reliant on the wind that they struggle to take off when conditions are calm. However, one study also found that there is an upper limit to the beneficial effects of the wind. Researchers attached small tracking devices to albatrosses on South Georgia island in the southwest Atlantic Ocean. They found that during extremely strong storm winds, two species of albatrosses struggled to eat as the conditions made finding food difficult or dangerous.³³ This is concerning, as storms are predicted to become more frequent and severe in the Southern Ocean due to climate change.

Wandering albatrosses travel more than 10,000km in a single foraging trip. So how do they find their way back to the same nest site on the same remote island year after year? One study by researchers at the University of Liverpool provides a clue.³⁴ The scientists used GPS trackers to determine the flight paths of 89 wandering albatrosses breeding in the Crozet Islands archipelago, located in the Southern Ocean. The albatrosses were conducting foraging trips out at sea, which typically last up to a month.

They discovered that the birds use a very low frequency of sound called infrasound to navigate. The sound, which is typically inaudible to humans, is produced when waves crash together or against coastlines.³⁵ The study found that, when making decisions about where to go next, the albatrosses invariably chose the direction with the loudest infrasound. The reason could be that high waves bring fish to the surface, and so infrasound could inform birds of good foraging patches. High wave activity also indicates strong winds, which wandering albatrosses depend on to fly efficiently. As infrasound is also generated when waves crash against the coast, the birds could also use this information to find their way back to land.

Albatrosses are one of the longest-lived families of bird, with many reaching the ripe old age of 50 and over. The world’s oldest known albatross is Wisdom, a Laysan albatross. Wisdom is one of millions of albatrosses that return every year to the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, near Hawaii, to nest. She was first tagged there by scientists in 1956, as she prepared to lay her first egg.³⁶ As Laysan albatrosses reach sexual maturity at around five years of age, she is thought to be at least 74 as of 2025.

Wisdom has laid over 50 eggs in her lifetime, and in December 2024 the elderly albatross returned once more to the wildlife centre to lay another egg. For decades she raised chicks with the same mate, but her partner has not been seen for years. Wisdom began to seek out a new mate and in 2025 has paired with one who's helping her to incubate her egg.³⁷

Albatrosses are frequently referred to as having the smallest ‘divorce rate’ among all birds. Many mate for life, and are known to return to breed and raise chicks with the same partner year after year.

Adults are renowned for their intricate courtship dance displays which they practise for years to perfect. Wandering albatross pairs, for example, break out a series of at least 22 distinct dance moves, including head rolling, wing spreading, and beak-clacking.³⁸ They tap their bills together, and sway and throw open their gigantic wings in a mesmerising courtship ritual. The display of the Laysan albatross, on the other hand, involves 24 moves such as whinnying, head flicking, air snapping, and clucking.³⁹ When they decide to finally mate, each pair produces just one single egg, which they will both take turns incubating while the other hunts for food. Once the egg hatches, both parents will forage for food for their chick until it is old enough to leave the nest.

However, this doesn’t tell the whole story, as some studies show that up to 24% of wandering albatross chicks are reared by a male who is not their genetic father.⁴⁰ This suggests that some albatrosses are not truly monogamous, but rather socially monogamous. Socially monogamous birds work together with their partner to raise chicks, but sometimes sneak off for extra-pair matings.⁴¹

Despite many albatrosses mating for life, some do get divorced, for instance, if breeding success is low with their current partner. However albatrosses can get divorced for other reasons too. One 2022 study showed that 13% of wandering albatrosses born on the remote Crozet Islands in the Indian Ocean divorce during their lifetime.⁴² They found that during courtships dances, a few aggressive ‘homewrecker’ males were forcing the timid males out of their pair bond, ending the partnerships of these otherwise monogamous birds.

There are also signs that climate change could also be causing albatrosses to divorce, as the birds have to travel farther to find decreasing numbers of fish.⁴³ Over a 15-year period, Francesco Ventura at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the USA tracked 424 female socially monogamous black-browed albatrosses as they returned to the Falkland Islands to mate.⁴⁴ They found that females were most likely to divorce their partners if they suffered breeding failure. However, the climate also appeared to play a role. In years when the surface seawater around the islands was warmer than usual, divorce rates spiked, even amongst successfully breeding pairs. The reason is likely due to the fact that less food is available when seas are warmer, requiring albatross to fly further and further to find food. It is possible that hungry females blame their partner for the lack of food, causing them to look elsewhere.

Albatrosses spend months or sometimes even years out on the open ocean, raising the question of how they sleep. It’s known that albatrosses frequently land on the ocean, providing them with the opportunity to sleep for several hours at a time.⁴⁵ However it’s also possible, although not proven, that albatrosses can sleep mid-flight.⁴⁶For instance, a 2016 study found that a distant cousin of the albatross, the frigatebird, experienced multiple bout of seconds-long sleep while flying, suggesting that sleeping in the air is definitely possible for long-distance traveling seabirds.⁴⁷

Featured image © Nareeta Martin | Unsplash

Fun fact image © Nareeta Martin | Unsplash

Quick Facts

1. Source BirdLife International. 2023. Many albatross species are in alarming slow decline. https://datazone.birdlife.org/sowb/casestudy/many-albatross-species-are…
    
2. Source IUCN Redlist accessed 01/04/25 https://www.iucnredlist.org

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