Waved albatross

Description:

Waved Albatross are spectacular flyers using their 235 cm (7+ foot) wing span to soar over the open Pacific Ocean! They can glide for hours without stalling by using dynamic soaring, alternately rising and falling to take advantage of the wind. The shape of their wings that works so well for soaring also works against them when trying to take off or land. They prefer a cliff runway with a headwind for take-offs and a soft landing spot for their controlled crash landings. This one demonstrated a perfect three point landing just feet from us.

Habitat:

Open Pacific Ocean except when breeding. Mating pairs use Española Island, in the Galápagos Archipelago, which was created by a shield volcano 4 million years ago. Since then, the island was eroded to become a flat, rocky and arid land.

Notes:

Waved albatross mate for life; a relationship that starts with an elaborate courtship ritual. This routine is a precise sequence of moves, which includes rapidly circling and bowing their bills, clacking their beaks together and raising their bills skyward whilst letting out a “whoo-ooo” call. This species is classified as Critically Endangered because it has an extremely small breeding range, essentially confined to one island, Espanola, and evidence suggests that it has experienced a substantial recent population decline. The Waved Albatross is monogamous and mates for life which can be as long as 30-40 years. The breeding period starts in April each year. This species does not build any nest and is the only one of this family which lays a single egg in a natural depression and directly on the ground. Both parents take turns incubating the egg for two months, with stints of 5-22 days at a time as the mate is out feeding. At hatching, the chick is covered in thick blackish-brown down. When it is two weeks old, it is left in crèche or nursery while parents go to sea for fishing. When they return, they feed the chick with pre-digested oily fish liquid. The young fledges about 165-167 days after hatching, and it is able to fly. It will be sexually mature between 3 and 6 years. It leaves the colony in January and spends several years at sea, until it can breed.