Albatross

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Albatrosses, of the biological family Diomedeidae, are large seabirds related to the procellariids, storm petrels, and diving petrels in the order Procellariiformes (the tubenoses). They range widely in the Southern Ocean and the North Pacific. They are absent from the North Atlantic, although fossil remains of short-tailed albatross show they lived there up to the Pleistocene, and occasional vagrants are found. Generally, the group depends on cold water currents for their foraging and nesting grounds. The geographically outlying genus Phoebastria which includes 3 North Pacific species and an equatorial (Galapagos) species exploits the California, Alaska, Oyashio and Humboldt currents, nesting on major oceanic islands near those currents. Great albatrosses are among the largest of flying birds, with wingspans reaching up to 2.5–3.5 metres (8.2–11.5 ft) and bodies over 1 metre (3.3 ft) in length. The albatrosses are usually regarded as falling into four genera, but disagreement exists...

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