Albatross, << AL buh traws or AL buh tros >> is the name for any one of several kinds of large sea birds. Albatrosses are found over nearly all oceans, except the North Atlantic. The best-known albatross is the wandering albatross of southern seas. It has a white body and darker wings and tail. The spread wings may be up to 111/2 feet (3.5 meters) from tip to tip. Its bill is long, heavy, and powerful.
The albatross sometimes follows a ship for days but is seldom seen resting. It feeds on scraps of food thrown from the ship, or on fish and squid. On such food-gathering flights, the wandering albatross has been known to cover more than 9,300 miles (15,000 kilometers) and to maintain an average speed of 35 miles (56 kilometers) per hour for 500 miles (800 kilometers).
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Albatrosses come to land only to breed. Thousands of these birds assemble together on remote islands. The female albatross’s single egg is white with brown spots. It is laid on bare ground or in a shallow nest and hatches after about 81 days. The young bird has dark, fluffy down. Two species of albatrosses are commonly found along the Pacific Coast of North America.
Sailors have long had strange beliefs about the albatross. The English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge describes some of these beliefs in his poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”
