Seabird Picture of the Month, October 2001:
Wandering Albatross and Spectacled Petrels
Photo by Fabio Olmos

The Wandering Albatross (Diomedea exulans) is one of the largest seabirds on earth, and arguably the most majestic. Cruising on its extraordinary sailplane wings, these albatrosses are indeed wanderers, covering 10's of thousands of kilometers on foraging trips. Wandering Albatrosses breed at 12 island groups around the Southern Ocean, and are variable in size, plumage and breeding season. Birds do not begin breeding until 7-9 years of age, and then they may only breed every other year, or less often. The breeding cycle takes more than one year. Wandering Albatross are generally found south of 20 degrees South latitude, and in deep oceanic waters. Birds frequent continental shelf-edge waters of South America, Africa and Australia, where they feed predominantly on squid and fish.  

This picture of a Wandering Albatross was taken in August 1999 from aboard a pelagic long-liner targeting swordfish off the southern Brazilian shelf, over waters greater than 3,000 m in depth. This is a blue water area dominated by the warm Brazilian Current. Lots of seabirds gather to feed on discards from the longliners that work there during the winter-- mostly endangered Spectacled Petrels Procellaria conspicillata (also shown in the picture), but also several albatrosses. The albatross in this picture is smallish and has a relatively short and tall bill, characteristics of the Tristan Albatross Diomedea dabbenena, a species now breeding only in Gough and Inaccessible islands in the central Atlantic. The species is endangered due to its small population (about 1,500 pairs attempting to breed/year) being concentrated mostly in Gough, and by incidental mortality in long-line fisheries.  

This picture and text was provided by Dr. Fabio Olmos, a biologist interested in factors influencing the distribution of seabirds at sea, including human activities. Dr. Olmos is currently an environmental consultant working out of Sao Paulo, Brazil. You can contact Dr. Olmos at: guara@nethall.com.br  

For more information on Wandering Albatross, see the April 2000 Picture of the Month. 

For more information on the three Alaskan albatrosses, see Seabird Flashcards. 

To learn more about Spectacled Petrels, check out this work by Kees Camphyusen http://home.planet.nl/~camphuys/Spectacled.html 

To learn more about all the worlds' albatrosses, check out "Albatrosses" by W.L.N. Tickell (Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 448 pages).