Albatross interesting facts. Albatross bird. Who are wandering albatrosses? Takeoff and landing features

Albatross - Order Tube-nosed, Albatross family

Albatross Salvini (Thalassarche salvini). Habitat - Atlantic Ocean. Wingspan 2.6 m. Weight 4 kg

Under this name, 13 species of birds are known, which are considered one of the largest flying birds.

So, for example, the record in the wingspan, recorded in the Guinness Book of Records, belongs to a wandering albatross: on September 18, 1965, a male with a wingspan of 3.63 meters was caught in the Tasman Sea. Albatrosses are inhabitants of the open sea, appearing on land only during the breeding season.

Birds have a very ancient origin - their fossilized remains, discovered by paleontologists, date back 30-35 million years. Europeans learned about these wanderers of the seas only in the 15th century, when sailors first rounded Cape Horn. The name "albatross" is the Portuguese word "alcatraz" distorted by English sailors, which the Portuguese used to designate all large sea birds. Albatrosses feed on fish, squid, which are caught in the surface layers of water.

white-backed albatross(Phoebastria albatrus)
The white-backed albatross is the largest sea bird in Russia, its wingspan reaches 2.3 m. The back of the 6-backed albatross does not seem completely white. Black-brown edges and ends of the wings, as well as the black end of the tail, interfere with perception. The head and neck of this albatross are also not white, but with a golden-red tint. The beak is interestingly colored - it is pinkish with a bluish tip. In the old days, white-backed albatrosses built their nests on small volcanic islands with steep banks. Nowadays, there is practically only one such island - Torishima. At the end of the 20th century, several hundred birds nested on it. Today even less. The life of the species is under threat. The main dangers are rats and feral cats. They kill white-backed albatross chicks. In Russia, white-backed albatrosses can be seen in the coastal waters of Primorye, Sakhalin, Kamchatka, the Commander and Kuril Islands. A pair of birds lays a large egg every two years; both parents incubate him for two months.

dark-backed albatross }