Snowy albatross
Diomedea exulans
— Where the name comes from
Albatross comes from the Spanish and Portuguese alcatraz, perhaps from the Arabic al-ġaṭṭās, “the diver”, later altered under the influence of the Latin albus, white. Diomedea recalls the companions of Diomedes, turned into birds after Troy; exulans in Latin is “exiled, wandering”.
— Facts
- Group
- Birds · Aves
- Order
- Tubenoses
- Habitat
- The open southern ocean
- Range
- The Southern Ocean, circumpolar
- Size
- Up to 3.5 m wingspan, 6–12 kg
- Diet
- Carnivore — squid, fish, carrion
- Lifespan
- 50 years and more
— Characteristics
- 01
The greatest wingspan of any living bird.
- 02
Breeds every second year: a single egg, reared for almost a year.
- 03
Covers more than 100,000 km in a year.
— What sets it apart
A tendon locks the wing open with no muscular effort. The albatross does not flap: it works the wind gradient above the waves, climbing into the wind and coming back down with it — dynamic soaring. It can stay aloft for weeks, and its heart rate in flight is barely above its resting rate. It is gliding, not flying: and that way it can circle the globe in 46 days.
