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Wandering Albatrosses are very big seabirds with an almost all-white plumage. Adult birds have a black fringe around the wings, extending from the alula outwards and all around the back of the wing. The bill is flesh-pink, the eyes are black. Females always have brown speckles or streaks on the crown. Juvenile birds have all dark-grey bodies and upperwings, with a white face. In immature Wandering Albatrosses the body, upperwings and underwings gradually moult from being black into the mostly white adult plumage with black edges, in various stages of mottled black-and-white.

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 Wandering Albatross is available HERE .

At sea the range of Wandering Albatrosses is circumpolar, from -28 to -60 degrees geographic latitude. Their breeding colonies are on several islands, including - on Australian territory - on Macquarie Island.

In Australia they reach coastal waters off the Australian continent anywhere along the southern half of the continent, from South of -20 degrees latitude on the QLD coast to just to the North of Perth in WA.

Wandering Albatrosses are pelagic birds that spend most of their time out on the open ocean and in coastal waters. They breed on offshore islands.

Race "exulans"

Race "gibsoni"