Nineteen of the twenty-one species of albatross are endangered. This is partly because animals such as rats and cats attack their eggs, chicks, and sometimes adult birds as well. Pollution of the oceans, such as plastic waste and oils spills, also kills albatrosses. Sometimes there may be not enough fish to eat because of over-fishing. The main reason why albatross are endangered is longline fishing which causes many albatross to get caught on hooks that have been baited to catch fish. This causes the birds to drown.
Albatrosses are very large. The bill is large, strong and sharp. This bill is made of horny plates. Along the sides are the two "tubes". They are actually long nostrils. The tubes of all albatrosses are on the sides of the bill. They help the albatrosses develop their sense of smell a lot. The feet have no last toe and the three other toes are all webbed. Their legs are quite strong, and they can walk well on land, unlike other sea birds.
Albatrosses need to take salt out of their body because they drink ocean water. All birds have a large gland at the top part of their bill, above their eyes. This gland is sometimes useless to birds that do not need it. However, albatrosses use them to help take out saltwater. Scientists are not sure how it works exactly. However, they know that it helps take out the salt. It makes a liquid that makes the saltwater drip out of their nose.
The adult albatrosses usually have a dark upper-wing and back, and white undersides when they are getting ready to take flight. Albatrosses take several years to get their full adult feathers.
The wings of the largest albatrosses (genus "Diomedea") can be up to .
Albatrosses flying north from their family sometimes fly in a clockwise direction, and those flying south will fly the opposite. The most energy used up in their journey is not when they travel a long way, but when they land, take-off, and hunt. This helps the albatross fly more longer distances and find good food. They can fly easily over wind and waves. However, because their long wings do not have strong muscles or energy, they cannot flap while they fly. Because of this, albatrosses in calm seas must stop and rest on the surface of the ocean until the wind begins to blow harder. When taking-off, albatrosses need to run first to help the wing make lift. Albatrosses are known for their clumsiness when landing.
Most albatrosses are found in the southern hemisphere from Antarctica to Australia, South Africa and South America. However, the four North Pacific albatrosses live elsewhere. Three of them are in the North Pacific, from Hawaii to Japan, California and Alaska. The last one, the Waved Albatross, is in the Galapagos Islands and finds food in the coast of South America.
It is not known clearly why the albatrosses became extinct in the North Atlantic. Some think that it was because the sea level rose at that time. Some kind of albatrosses that live in the south have usually been trapped in the North Atlantic, and are forced to stay there for a long time.
Sometimes scientists may use the satellite when trying to learn about albatrosses. They try to find out about the way albatrosses go across the ocean to find food with the satellites. There is proof that the sea separates different kinds of species of the Albatross. There is also proof of different pathways for the two sexes of the same kind of species. A study of Tristan Albatrosses living on the Gough Island showed that males look for food on the west and the females go around the east.
The albatross eats cephalopods, fish, crustaceans and offal. Sometimes, they may also eat carrion and or other kinds of zooplankton. However, the importance of each food is different according to each species. Some may like to eat only squids, or others might eat more krill or fish. From the two albatross species that live in Hawaii, one of them, the Black-footed Albatross, eats mostly fish. The other one, the Laysan Albatross, eats more squids instead.
Sometimes albatrosses may use the help of other animals to eat. For example, some squids are too big to be caught alive by the albatross. Instead, albatrosses eat squids that die after mating, or after they have been vomited by squid-eating whales (such as sperm whales and pilot whales). Other species, like the Black-browed Albatross or the Grey-headed Albatross, eat smaller species of squid that sink after they die, and they do not scavenge a lot. Also, sometimes the Waved Albatross has been seen stealing food from other birds.
Until now, it was thought that the albatrosses ate and found their food at the surface of the sea, this included dead squid and fish pushed to the surface by the waves, other animals that had eaten them, or death. This was thought because some species do not dive deeper than a metre. However, this theory was not true because some species have a mean (average) diving depth of almost 5 metres and can dive as deep as 12.5 metres. They have now been seen to eat from the surface, diving to catch prey and sometimes also plunging from the air to snatch their prey.
Albatrosses live together, and they usually nest on islands where no people live. Many Buller's Albatrosses and Black-footed Albatrosses nest under trees in open forest. Albatrosses usually come back to their own group after leaving for a while to find a mate. This is one of their strongest instinct, and the study of Laysan Albatross showed that the normal distance between the place where it was hatched and the place where the bird made its own territory was 22m (72 ft).
Like most seabirds, albatrosses live much longer than other birds. They also do not look for their mate for a long time, and do not have a lot of young. Some kinds of albatrosses live up to 50 years. The oldest albatross recorded was the Northern Royal Albatross that lived for 61 years.
Before albatrosses mate, they group together and spend lots of years practicing the mating rules and special "dances" that the family is famous for.
When the albatrosses learn these kind of actions and dances, they also learn things such as pointing, calling, making noises with their bill, staring, and sometimes all of them put together. When a bird first comes it will dance with many other albatrosses, but after a few years, the number of birds it will dance with will lessen until one of the birds are chosen. After becoming a pair, they will never use that dance again.
Albatrosses have a hard time laying their children. It takes a lot of time for an albatross to lay an egg and raise a chick. The great albatrosses take over a year to raise a chick. Albatrosses lay one egg, white with reddish brown spots. But if the egg is taken by other predators or accidentally broken, the parents will not lay another egg for that whole year. The larger eggs weigh from 200–510 g (7.1–18 oz). Two albatrosses do not usually "divorce". This sometimes may happen if several years passed without being able to lay a single egg.
All the albatrosses in the south live in large nests. They make it with grass, soil, and sometimes penguin feathers. The Waved Albatross, however, does not make a nest but instead moves its egg around the pair’s territory, as much as 50 m (160 ft). This may sometimes make it lose the egg. In all albatross species, both parents incubate the egg from between one day and three weeks. Incubation lasts around 70 to 80 days. This time may become more longer for the larger albatrosses. When they do this, it takes a lot of energy, and the adult can lose as much as 83 g (2.9 oz) of body weight a day.