The Albatross

By Terri Estes

The albatross is among the largest flying birds in the world with a wingspan of 9 to 11 feet and a body of over 3 feet in length. This is not a local bird, although fossil remains show that they once inhabited the Northern Atlantic region. This is a North Pacific and Southern Hemisphere bird.

Albatrosses can fly for days and weeks on end. Some have been tracked flying for over 40 days. They can travel thousands of miles in a single journey with only flapping their wings once every few hours. They are expert flyers and use a technique called “dynamic soaring” to glide through the air for days on end. Dynamic soaring is the use of differences in wind speed and direction to gain height and speed. They fly in a zig zag pattern using updrafts to their advantage. Their large wingspan allows them to soar effortlessly through the air and they can even lock their wings while in the air so that they can rest and sleep while gliding.

Albatrosses mate for life. They make large, untidy nests, and the female lays one large, speckled egg per season, which the pair takes turns incubating. The chick hatches after 78 days. The parents feed it regurgitated food such as squid and krill for the first 20 days. After that, they leave the chick to forage on its own, and return every 10 days to feed it.

I recently read an article about the oldest known, banded wild bird, who at the ripe old age of 74, has recently started incubating an egg. Her name is Wisdom, and she is an Albatross. Her long-time mate, Akeakamai, has not been seen for several nesting seasons at the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in Hawaii. Wisdom returns to the same nesting site every year, but since her mate has been nowhere to be found, she had not laid an egg for several years. But this year, after four fruitless years, Wisdom was seen with a new mate, and has laid an egg that she and her new guy are taking turns incubating. Officials are not sure how old her new mate is, but they have given him a leg tag this year for future monitoring. They do know that Wisdom is a cougar and has snagged herself a much younger stud to help keep her nest warm and cozy. The pair have been seen cuddling and rubbing heads together. So, you see, you are never too old to start again!