The Amazing Albatross

The largest seabirds

This picture shows a boy next to some albatrosses (it is drawn to scale).

The boy is 1.5 metres from fingertip to fingertip (and 1.5 metres tall). His weight is 30 kilograms.
The Royal albatross (at the top) is 3.5 metres from wingtip to wingtip, weight is 8 kilograms.
The Antipodean (wandering) albatross is 3.2 metres from wingtip to wingtip, their weight is 8 kilograms.

How tall are you? If you lay beside a Royal albatross with a wingspan of 3.5 metres, how much longer would the albatross be?

Tube noses

Albatrosses eat fish and squid and drink sea water. You would die if you only had sea water to drink because it’s so salty. The albatross lives on seawater and gets rid of the salt in drips from its ‘tube-nose’. The salty water dripping from the albatrosses nose can make it look like the albatross is crying.

Albatrosses are part of the ‘tube-nose’ family of seabirds. Petrels and shearwaters are tube-nose seabirds, but gannets and seagulls are not.

 

Nesting and breeding

An albatross can live entirely at sea, feeding on fish and sleeping on the water. Albatrosses spend at least 85% of their lives at sea. But there is something the albatross cannot do at sea – nest and breed.

Albatrosses generally return to breed where they were hatched. Once they find a partner to breed with, they usually stay with this partner for life. Albatrosses usually breed for the first time when they are about 10 years old – this is old for a bird.

Albatrosses tend to nest together in colonies. Some species nest very close to other nests, within 1-2 metres of each other. Other species will not be that close but will be where they can see another albatross nest.

All albatross species will choose nest sites that are in exposed places, like cliffs, because they provide good take-off points. These nest sites are not very welcoming. They usually do not have shelter and are exposed to wind and rain. Nearly all albatrosses nest and breed on islands with no, or little, human contact.

Not all albatross species nest at the same time because of location, climate and food supply. The species that live on New Zealand islands start the mating cycle September and most eggs are laid in November. The incubation period is long for a bird, for example, Royal albatrosses have a 78-81 day incubation period. When chicks are born they are fed by both parents. Chicks are raised over summer and autumn. Chicks are fed by their parents for 7-8 months.

All albatross species only lay one egg when breeding and most albatross only breed once every two years. And it’s no wonder albatross only breed once every two years because courtship, incubation and chick rearing takes between 7 and 12 months!

Soaring the seas... Because albatrosses depend on the wind to fly and sailors depend on the wind to sail the albatross became a good omen to sailors. In fact, the albatross features in a poem about what happened to a sailor when he killed an albatross. The poem is called 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'.