The widest wings
Its wings can measure three and a half metres from tip to tip, more than any other bird.
Antarctic ice
Wandering albatross
Diomedea exulans
A huge white seabird with long, narrow, dark-tipped wings and a pale pink beak.
- Size
- Wingspan up to 3.5m: the longest of any bird
- Look for it
- All year round
- Where
- The Southern Ocean, nesting on remote islands
Soars round you without a wingbeat. Move your pointer and see.
When to look
Albatross
Good to know
Six things about the albatross
Hours without flapping
It locks its wings open and rides the wind over the waves, hardly ever flapping.
Round the world
An albatross can fly right round the bottom of the world in a few weeks.
A long life
Albatrosses can live for more than 60 years. One called Wisdom was still nesting in her seventies.
Partners for life
Pairs stay together for life, and greet each other with a dance of bows and bill clacks.
One chick, slowly
They raise a single chick every two years. It takes nine months to leave the nest.
The real thing
Photos of the albatross
Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
How to spot one
Albatrosses follow ships across the Southern Ocean. From the deck, watch for a huge bird tilting from wingtip to wingtip over the waves.
How to help
Many drown on fishing hooks. Choose fish with the blue MSC label, and support the Albatross Task Force, which helps crews to fish safely.
Keep going