What is an Albatross?

A Brief Description of Albatrosses, Large Birds of the Southern Seas and Seafarer’s Folklore.

Oct 24, 2006

Albatrosses are large seabirds best known to those who spend a lot of time at sea south of the equator or in the North Pacific.

Albatrosses are the largest of the seabirds – the wingspan of the great albatrosses can exceed 3 meters (10 feet). There are 21 species, most of which live in the southern oceans, ranging widely over large stretches of open ocean and nesting on islands. Three species breed in the North Pacific: the Stellar’s, Black-footed, and Laysan albatrosses.

The different species of albatross vary in appearance but many are white underneath with dark coloring on the back, the tops of long wings, or the wing tips. They have a large heavy bill. Many species have a dark brow, making them look rather stern.

Albatrosses are well known to sailors because of their tendency to follow ships, gliding for long periods on their elegant wings. In the past, sailors believed that the birds carried the souls of drowned seafarers and that killing one would bring bad luck. Anyone who has read Samuel Taylor Coleridges’s classic poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, knows that albatrosses in folklore can bring both salvation and catastrophe – woe to the ship that carries a man willing to kill an albatross.

Today, albatrosses are threatened by the loss of breeding sites, long-line fishing, and garbage and pollution in ocean waters.