Fascinating Facts About the Royal Albatross

Jul 11, 2011
Wendy Craig

A Royal Albatross Near Dunedin, New Zealand - Wendy Craig

The Royal Albatross is a magnificent example of aerodynamic form and function, perfectly adapted to live in the harsh environment of the Southern Ocean.

The Royal Albatross live near Dunedin, New Zealand, in a mainland breeding colony. This gives visitors to the area a rare chance of seeing these wonderful birds that spend much of their lives at sea.

Fascinating Facts About the Royal Albatross

Finding out more about these birds will enhance your birdwatching experience.

The scientific name of the Royal Albatross is Diomedea epomophora.
The New Zealand Maori name is Toroa.
Seeing an albatross has long been considered to be good luck by sailors. Conversely, killing an albatross will bring bad luck, as in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem,'The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner.'
Royal Albatross have two races. The Northern one breeds at Taiaroa Heads near Dunedin. Another population lives on the Chatham Islands. The Southern one breeds on Campbell and Auckland Islands in the sub Antarctic region.
The Northern Royal Albatross is slightly smaller than the Southern one.
The young birds do not practise flying before they make the first flight.
They spend their lives at sea, only returning to land to breed and raise their chicks.
They can live to about 60 years of age.
They can reach speeds of up to 120 km an hour when flying.
Some albatross follow ships and fishing boats, coming close to feed on scraps tossed overboard. Some have been known to land on ships to rest during their long flights.

The Royal Albatross: Physical Characteristics

They are very large, striking looking birds with the following characteristics:

They have a wingspan of about 3 metres.
Their body is pure white, the topsides of the wings are black.
The fledgeling chicks are all white.
They have a very large, pinkish bill with pronounced nostrils and a hook at the end.
On land they are clumsy; in the air they are elegant fliers.

The Life of the Royal Albatross

The Royal Albatross divides its life between long times at sea and time on land for courting, mating, breeding and raising chicks.

Adult birds arrive at the colony at Taiaroa Head near Dunedin in September.
Courting and mating takes place during October. Courting rituals involve a lot of neck twisting, 'star gazing' and clapping of beaks.
One egg is laid in November in a nest in the tussock grass on the hill side.
The albatross mate for life and share parenting duties. Both male and female take turns to sit on the egg, find food for the chick and guard the nest.
The egg will hatch in January or February, but the chick will not leave the nest until September.
One day, the juvenile bird will leave the nest, spread its wings, run clumsily down the hill and fly away. It will not return to land for up to 5 years.

Physical Adaptations of the Albatross to its Environment

The Southern Ocean, with its storms, high winds and freezing temperatures, is a hostile environment to living things. The Royal Albatross has several physical adaptations that allow it to survive.

They drink seawater. A gland behind the beak acts like an advanced filtration system, taking the salt from their blood. This then comes out their nostrils and drips down the beak.
When flying, the shoulder joints lock so the albatross become like fixed wing aircraft. This enables the birds to glide for long periods of time, expending less energy than if they were paddling on the waves.
Their flight is characterised by gliding and soaring on updraughts and skimming just above the waves. They rarely flap their wings.

An experiment was carried out in 2007 at the Royal Albatross Centre. A juvenile female albatross was fitted with a satellite tracking device. When she left the nest, the researchers were able to follow her flight. She flew from Dunedin in the south-east corner of New Zealand to the coast of Chile, a distance of thousands of kilometres, in 30 days. An incredible feat for a bird's first venture into the wide blue yonder!

Sources:

Notes taken at a talk at the Royal Albatross Centre
Robertson, H. & Heather, B. Tte Hand Guide to the Birds of New Zealand Penguin Books, Auckland, 1999
Power, E. Seabirds of New Zealand Collins, Auckland, 1979