Laysan Albatross

ocean birds · Hawaii · long-distance travelers

Ocean wanderers. Laysan albatrosses spend most of their lives flying over the vast North Pacific Ocean, traveling thousands of miles to find food and water. They only come back to land to rest and raise their chicks.

Hawaiian home base. Nearly all Laysan albatrosses in the world, about 99.7% of them, live and breed in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. That means over 1.18 million of these birds call those islands home.

Growing population. Unlike many seabirds that are disappearing, Laysan albatrosses are actually expanding to new islands and increasing in numbers. Scientists discovered new colonies establishing themselves on islands where they weren't seen before.

Recently discovered. The Laysan albatross wasn't officially described by scientists until 1893, when a famous naturalist named Lionel Walter Rothschild studied a specimen from Laysan Island and gave it its scientific name.

Elegant fliers. These albatrosses are large seabirds with long, narrow wings that let them glide effortlessly over ocean waves for hours without flapping, saving energy on their incredible journeys.