Albatross - Physical Characteristics, Habitat, Diet, Behavior

Albatross is any one of several large oceanic birds of unsurpassed powers of flight constituting a family in the petrel group. They are most common in the turbulent seas around Cape Horn and other far southern waters, where they ride out the roughest storms with ease. Sailors traditionally regarded the albatross with awe and veneration. When Coleridge's "ancient mariner" shot the fabled albatross, the bird was hung from his neck in penance, but this did not stay the hand of misfortune.

Physical Characteristics and Habitat
Like petrels, albatrosses have three fully webbed toes, while the hind toe is either absent

or represented by a claw. The bill of an albatross is 4 or more inches (10 cm) long and very thick, with a powerful hook at the tip. On each side of the base of the bill (instead of together on top, as with the petrel), the nostrils open from round horizontal tubes. The wings are extremely long and pointed, the tail is short and somewhat rounded, and the feathers of the body form a coat thick enough to withstand both water and severe cold.

There are two genera of albatross: Diomedea, which contains 12 of the 14 species, and Phoebetria, incorporating the remaining 2 species. The albatross belongs to the family Diomedeidae, in the order Procellariiformes, class Aves. The largest and best known of the species is the wandering

albatross (Diomedea exulans), an imposing white bird with a wingspread of approximately 12 feet (3.7 meters)—the longest of any living seabird.

Behavior and Diet
The wandering albatross, like others of its family, usually nests on small islands. Courtship display consists of an elaborate, ritualized dance. A single egg is laid, which requires more than two months of incubation. After it has hatched, another four or five months pass before the chick reaches adult size. Even then, it is still covered with fluffy down and is unable to fly. The young bird huddles in the nest, often covered with snow, and waits, sometimes for as long as three months, until its feathers are sufficiently grown to enable it to fly out to sea in search of food. During this stage the parents return to feed the young two or three times a week.

Although albatrosses are absent from the North Atlantic, two kinds nest on Midway and other islands of the Pacific, north of the equator. One Pacific species, the black-footed albatross (D. nigripes), wanders widely over the North Pacific. It often follows ships and gobbles down any greasy food waste thrown overboard. The chief food of albatrosses, however, is squid and other small marine creatures.

Reff: Jon Cuk, "World of Bird" 2009