Laysan Albatross
Overview
Laysan Albatross: Large seabird with dark brown back and white head, neck, and rump. Eye patch is dark. Bill is thick and yellow with gray, hooked tip. Wings are dark brown above and white below with irregular brown-black borders. Tail is dark brown-black with white coverts. Legs and feet are pink.
Range and Habitat
Laysan Albatross: Breeds on isolated islands in the central Pacific Ocean, mostly on Hawaiian chain islands. At other times it is found throughout the northern oceans, primarily around Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands.
INTERESTING FACTS
The Laysan Albatross is the second most common seabird in the Hawaiian Islands, with an estimated population of 2.5 million birds.
This bird is named for Laysan, which is one of its breeding colonies in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.
Albatrosses can fly for miles without flapping their wings. They let winds and rising air currents do the work for them.
A group of albatrosses are known collectively as a "flight", "rookery", and "weight" of albatrosses.
Satellite tracking reveals that some albatrosses fly around the entire planet in less than two months and can soar for six days without flapping their wings.
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