One of the 5 albatrosses on WAnimals
Birds · Procellariiformes · Diomedeidae
Grey-Headed Albatross
Thalassarche chrysostoma
Endangered
At very high risk of extinction in the wild in the near future.
The grey-headed albatross is a medium-sized albatross of the Southern Ocean, with an ash-grey head and a black bill striped with yellow along the upper and lower edges. It breeds every two years on subantarctic islands and feeds mainly on squid. It is the bird with the fastest recorded sustained horizontal flight, and its populations are declining through accidental capture on longlines and predation by mice introduced to the colonies.
Weight
2.8 kg – 4.4 kg
Size
70 cm – 85 cm
Life expectancy
45 years
