Birds
Albatross
Diomedeidae · also called albatrosses, mollymawks
An albatross barely uses muscle to fly. It locks its 3-metre wings open and rides the wind gradient above the waves, arc after arc, crossing whole oceans on a foraging trip and circling Antarctica in a matter of weeks. It can live past 70, mates for life, and comes ashore only to breed on remote islands — and most species are now being killed faster than they breed, on fishing hooks.
Overview
Albatrosses are the family Diomedeidae, 22 species, mostly of the Southern Ocean, plus three in the North Pacific and the waved albatross of the Galapagos. They eat squid, fish, and krill from the surface, and scavenge heavily from fishing boats. The wandering and southern royal albatrosses have the largest wingspan of any living bird, 3.1–3.5 m.
Flight without flapping
Albatrosses cross the ocean by dynamic soaring — climbing into the faster wind a few metres up, then diving back down across the wind gradient, extracting energy from the difference. A shoulder tendon locks the wings open so holding them out costs no muscle. A foraging trip of thousands of kilometres burns barely more energy than sitting still, and grey-headed albatrosses have been tracked circling Antarctica in 46 days.
Slow lives
The big albatrosses don’t breed until 7–10 years old, raise one chick every two years, and can live for decades — a Laysan albatross called Wisdom is still hatching chicks past 70. Pairs mate for life and perform an elaborate courtship dance that young birds spend years learning. A salt gland above the eyes lets them drink seawater.
Status
The family is Endangered overall — most species are threatened, and the Tristan, Amsterdam, and waved albatrosses are Critically Endangered. The main cause is longline and trawl bycatch, tens of thousands drowned a year, plus introduced mice and rats eating eggs and chicks. Simple measures — night setting, weighted lines, bird-scaring streamers — cut bycatch by over 90% where used.
Albatross: common questions
How big is an albatross wingspan?
The wandering albatross has the largest wingspan of any living bird, with reliably measured individuals from about 2.5 metres up to around 3.5 metres from wingtip to wingtip, and the southern royal albatross is very similar. Most of the other large albatrosses fall in the 2 to 3 metre range, and the smaller species, the mollymawks and sooty albatrosses, are around 1.8 to 2.2 metres. No living bird exceeds the wandering albatross, though some extinct birds, such as the giant pelagornithids, had far greater spans. The wings are not just long but very narrow, an efficient shape for gliding that is poor for flapping, which is why albatrosses struggle to take off in calm air.
How do albatrosses fly so far without getting tired?
They almost never flap. Albatrosses use a technique called dynamic soaring that harvests energy from the wind itself. Wind blows slower right at the sea surface, slowed by friction, and faster a few metres up. An albatross climbs into the faster air moving into the wind, gaining speed and height, then turns and dives back down through the wind gradient, converting that speed into distance, and repeats the cycle endlessly in a series of shallow arcs just above the waves. Because the energy comes from the wind, a bird can travel hundreds or thousands of kilometres on a foraging trip while burning barely more energy than it would resting, which is one reason albatrosses can range so widely.
How long do albatrosses live?
The large species are among the longest-lived of all birds. They are slow to start, not breeding until around 7 to 10 years old, and then raise at most one chick every two years. In exchange, adults have very high annual survival and can live for many decades. The best-known example is a female Laysan albatross called Wisdom, tagged as a breeding adult in 1956 and therefore at least in her early seventies, who has continued to return to Midway Atoll and hatch chicks. Life spans of 40 to 60 years are considered normal for the bigger albatrosses, assuming the bird survives its first few years at sea.
Why are so many albatrosses endangered?
The single biggest cause is accidental capture in fisheries, known as bycatch. Albatrosses follow fishing boats to scavenge, and when they grab baited hooks on longlines being set, they are dragged under and drown, while trawl fisheries kill them through collisions with the heavy cables. Tens of thousands die this way each year, a level that slow-breeding albatross populations cannot sustain. On land, mice and rats introduced to breeding islands eat eggs and even attack chicks alive. Plastic pollution, marine heatwaves, and avian diseases add further pressure. Where fisheries have adopted simple measures such as setting lines at night, weighting them to sink fast, and flying bird-scaring streamers, albatross bycatch has dropped by over 90 percent, showing the problem is solvable.