Wide wings and long life, albatrosses are rarely seen on land and prefer to stay out on ocean, except to mate and raise their chicks. The albatrosses are a group of large to very large birds, they are the largest of the procellariiformes. Albatrosses have been described as "the most legendary of all birds." An albatross is a central emblem in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Their long, narrow wings are strikingly graceful. Equally impressive are the large heads featuring massive hooked bills. Their bodies are mostly white and have long necks, short legs and short tails especially. The size of the largest great albatrosses (genus Diomedea) are the largest of any bird, exceeding 340 cm.
Wandering albatrosses are the biggest seabirds and spend months at sea. They are such good gliders that they even sleep as they fly. To feed, they sit on the surface of water, where they catch creatures such as cephalopods (class of marine mollusks that includes nautilus, squid, cuttlefish, and octopus) , fish and crustaceans (Arrow Crab, Stenorhynchus seticornis. Red Hermit Crab, Dardanus megistos. Purple Shore Crab, Hemigrapsus nudus). An albatross has a wingspan of around 3 metres about the lenght of a family car !!!
Out of the 21 albatross species recognised by IUCN on their Red List, 19 albatross species are threatened, and the other two are near threatened.
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