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Albatrosses
Seeing as there is a great image of Blacks now in the gallery of a Waved Albatross I thought I would give a few facts about these endangered birds.
Young Albatrosses are being killed by long-line fishing before they have time to breed, parents leaving orphaned chicks to starve. Extinction could be just around the corner!
They are among the largest flying birds, weighing up to 11kg. The largest species, the wandering albatross, has a wingspan of almost 3.5meters.
Albatrosses can live for more than 50 years.
They feed on fish and squid, from the open sea and can fly thousands of miles without stopping. They only need to touch land to nest and to raise their young.
Albatrosses only lay one egg which can take 70 days to incubate, and another 10 months for the young bird to fledge.
For over a year both parents take it in turn to makes frequent trips of up to five thousand miles, for days on end, to bring food back for the hungry chick. This is so energy demanding that a pair of wandering albatrosses can only produce one chick every two years at best.
Once fledged, it takes many more years for young albatrosses to mature to the point when they can mate and produce chicks of their own. These years are spent cruising the southern oceans.
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