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3

Southern Royal Albatross (Diomedea epomophora) Size: 1.12-1.23 m; wing span 2.9-3.5 m Body mass: 6.5-10.3 kg Wing loading [g/cm2]: 1.75

Australia: Family Group 3 Family Group 3 table Southern Fulmar Antarctic Petrel Cape Petrel Mottled Petrel Black-winged Petrel Providence Petrel Grey-faced Petrel Kermadec Petrel Soft-plumaged Petrel Tahiti Petrel Buller's Shearwater Wedge-tailed Shearwater Flesh-footed Shearwater Sooty Shearwater Short-tailed Shearwater Fluttering Shearwater Hutton's Shearwater Little Shearwater Antarctic Prion Slender-billed Prion Fairy Prion Blue Petrel Southern Giant-Petrel Northern Giant-Petrel Light-mantled Albatross Wandering Albatross Southern Royal Albatross Northern Royal Albatross Black-browed Albatross Campbell Albatross Buller's Albatross Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross Shy Albatross Common Diving-Petrel Wilson's Storm-Petrel New Zealand Storm-Petrel White-faced Storm-Petrel Thumbnails page Family group table Index of bird names Habitat pages Key plants Birds home page

Similar species

Description     Classification     Distribution     Sightings     Photos     Breeding     Nest     Eggs     Behaviour     Food     Call/s

Physical description Click here for a physical description Northern Royal Albatrosses are very big seabirds with a black-and-white plumage. Adult birds have a narrow black fringe around the underwings, extending from the alula outwards and all around the trailing edge of the wing. The body, from head to tail, both front and back, is white. The upperwings of juveniles are all black. They gradually moult into adult plumage with black outside the alula and towards the back of the wing, while the inner wings become successively whiter with age, often with white patches on the tertial coverts. However, the trailing edge of the upperwing always remains dark. The bill is flesh-pink with a yellowish tip, the irises are black. Legs and feet are pinkish-grey.

Taxonomy, classification See Southern Royal Albatross at Wikipedia .

Range, habitat, finding this species Click here for information on habitat and range The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org . The global distribution of the Southern Royal Albatross is available HERE . At sea the range of Wandering Albatrosses is circumpolar, from -30 to -45 degrees geographic latitude. Their breeding colonies are on several islands near New Zealand, i.e. Campbell Island, Enderby Island, Auckland Island and Adams Island. In Australia they reach coastal waters off the Australian continent anywhere along the southern half of the continent, from South of Sydney on the NSW coast to just to the North of Perth in WA. They are mostly present in waters off the coastline from Adelaide, SA, to the NSW/VIC in the South-east, excluding most of the time Bass Strait. Southern Royal Albatrosses are pelagic birds that spend most of their time out on the open ocean and in coastal waters. They breed on offshore islands.

Sightings Click here for sighting information M. Eaton reports finding Southern Royal Albatrosses on a pelagic off Eaglehawk Neck, near Hobart, TAS, in September 2021. All sighting and photographic information presented on this page has been kindly contributed by M. Eaton.

Photos

ADULT

Frontal view of a Southern Royal Albatross (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Off Eaglehawk Neck, near Hobart, TAS, September 2021]

Near-frontal view of a Southern Royal Albatross (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Off Eaglehawk Neck, near Hobart, TAS, September 2021]

Close-up near-lateral view of a Southern Royal Albatross (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Off Eaglehawk Neck, near Hobart, TAS, September 2021]

Lateral view of a Southern Royal Albatross (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Off Eaglehawk Neck, near Hobart, TAS, September 2021]

Lateral view of a Southern Royal Albatross (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Off Eaglehawk Neck, near Hobart, TAS, September 2021]

Near-dorsal view of a Southern Royal Albatross (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Off Eaglehawk Neck, near Hobart, TAS, September 2021]

Near-frontal view of a Southern Royal Albatross in direct comparison with a Shy Albatross (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Off Eaglehawk Neck, near Hobart, TAS, September 2021]

Near-frontal view of two Southern Royal Albatrosses in direct comparison with a Shy Albatross (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Off Eaglehawk Neck, near Hobart, TAS, September 2021]

Lateral view of a Southern Royal Albatross in direct comparison with a juvenile Northern Giant-Petrel
(photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Off Eaglehawk Neck, near Hobart, TAS, September 2021]

Near-dorsal comparison between a Southern Royal Albatross, left, and a Northern Royal Albatross
(photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Off Eaglehawk Neck, near Hobart, TAS, September 2021]

Near-frontal view of a Southern Royal Albatross in flight (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Off Eaglehawk Neck, near Hobart, TAS, September 2021]

Near-lateral view of a Southern Royal Albatross in flight (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Off Eaglehawk Neck, near Hobart, TAS, September 2021]

While on the water, the difference in size between a Southern Royal Albatross and a Shy Albatross appears to be small, but with their wings spread in flight, the difference becomes clear (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Off Eaglehawk Neck, near Hobart, TAS, September 2021]

Food, Diet

Lateral view of a Southern Royal Albatross picking up food scraps (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Off Eaglehawk Neck, near Hobart, TAS, September 2021]

These pages are largely based on our own observations and those of our contributors. The structure of these bird pages is explained HERE. For more salient facts on any bird species please refer to a field guide.