Stats

Lifespan: Up to 70 yrs
Size: Large
Diet: Carnivore
Activity: Diurnal
Social: Colony
Biome: Open ocean
Range: Southern Ocean
Movement: Flight
Breeding: Egg-laying
Defense: Herd Safety
Status: Uncommon

About

The world's most abundant albatross, named for the bold dark stripe above each eye; it breeds on subantarctic islands and can live over 70 years while roaming tens of thousands of kilometres across the Southern Ocean.

Life cycle

1.
egg
A clutch of eggs is incubated in the nest, kept warm by a brooding parent until the chicks pip free.
2.
hatchling
A naked or downy hatchling is fed in the nest by its parents.
3.
juvenile
A feathered juvenile fledges from the nest and learns to fly and forage.
4.
adult
Fully grown with adult plumage.

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Taxonomy

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Procellariiformes
Family: Diomedeidae
Genus: Thalassarche
Species: Thalassarche melanophris