Birds and Birding's Guide to:

Watching THE ALBATROSSES AND PETRELS

Wandering Albatross and Relatives

The Albatrosses were formerly included in a single genus, but later authorities mainly agree in separating them into three genera, of which Diomedea is the original and largest, and may be known by the upper division of the bill being broadest at the base. Of the ten recognized species in this genus the Wandering Albatross (D. exulans) is by far the commonest and best known, being widely spread over the southern oceans.

The fully adult birds are white, with the back banded with narrow, transverse, undulating dark lines, while the wing-quills are black. In the young the general color is dusky, with the head whitish. The bill is yellowish horn-color, becoming orange at the base, and the feet and legs flesh-color. According to Ridgway the length is from forty-four to fifty-five inches, and the spread of wings from one hundred and twenty-five to one hundred and thirty inches.

Very similar to this species is the Royal Albatross (D. regia) of the New Zealand seas, which differs mainly in the absence of the transverse dark lines on the upper back and of spots on the tail, and the White-winged Albatross (D. chionoptera) of the southern Indian Ocean, which is almost pure white throughout. Of the two species inhabiting the North Pacific, the Short-tailed Albatross (D. albatrus) is white, becoming straw-yellow on the head and neck, and has the bill and feet pale brownish, while the Black-footed Albatross (D. nigripes) is a uniform dusky, with the bill purplish brown and the feet black; neither is more than thirtyseven inches in length.

Of the remaining species we may only mention the Spectacled Albatross (D. melanophrys), which is so called from the presence of a distinct grayish stripe on the sides of the head and about the eyes. It is a small species, being only about thirty inches long, and is found in the southern oceans, straying occasionally to the coast of California. A single fossil species has been described from the recent deposits of England.

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