Snowy Albatross

ocean birds · Southern Ocean · giant wings · seabirds

Massive wingspan. The snowy albatross has the largest wings of any albatross species. These enormous wings can stretch up to 11 feet across, helping the bird glide for hours without flapping.

Ocean wanderer. Also called the wandering albatross, this bird spends most of its life flying over the cold, windy Southern Ocean around Antarctica. It travels thousands of miles searching for food like squid and fish.

Southern home. Snowy albatrosses live in a circumpolar range, meaning they're found all the way around the Southern Ocean near Antarctica and never in the Northern Hemisphere.

Puzzle for scientists. For a long time, scientists thought the snowy albatross was the same species as the Tristan albatross and Antipodean albatross. Scientists now study them as part of a special group called the wandering albatross complex.