The wandering albatross, Diomedea exulans, is a large seabird that feeds over the Southern Ocean and nests on islands near Antarctica. As of 2026, it has the greatest wingspan of any living bird. Its wings measure about 3 meters (10 feet) from tip to tip on average, and up to almost 3.5 meters (11.5 feet).

Size

A bird's wingspan is the distance from wingtip to wingtip with the wings fully spread. A 2022 study of flight in giant birds used an average wingspan of 3.05 meters for the wandering albatross, taken from measurements of males and females. The Australian Museum puts the wingspan at almost 3.5 meters. Females are slightly smaller than males.

The wings are long and very narrow. With a total area of about 0.61 square meters, they average only about 20 centimeters (8 inches) from front edge to back edge, and their span is about 15 times that width. Adult males weigh about 9.8 kilograms (22 pounds) and females about 7.7 kilograms (17 pounds).

Size comparisons

• A 3.05-meter wingspan is about 1.8 times the height of a person 1.7 meters (5 feet 7 inches) tall.
• The same wingspan equals the height of the rim of a basketball hoop, 3.05 meters (10 feet) above the floor.
• A 2022 study names two extinct species as the largest known flying birds. One of them, Pelagornis sandersi, lived about 25–28 million years ago, and both had estimated wingspans of 6–7 meters, about twice that of a wandering albatross.
• A wandering albatross has about three times the wingspan of a typical adult Rhamphorhynchus, an extinct flying reptile whose wings spanned about 1 meter.

Flying without flapping

Wandering albatrosses spend most of their lives in the air, landing only to breed and to feed. One banded bird was recorded traveling 6,000 kilometers (3,700 miles) in 12 days, about 500 kilometers a day.

For much of that distance, the wind, not the bird's muscles, supplies the energy for flight. Over the ocean, the wind blows faster higher up than it does near the waves. By swooping up and down through this change in wind speed, a flight pattern called dynamic soaring, the albatross draws energy from the wind. A 2012 study that tracked the birds by GPS showed that the repeated up-and-down curves gain enough energy to make up for what the bird loses to drag, the resistance of the air.

Raising a chick

Pairs mate for life and breed every two years on islands near Antarctica, including South Georgia and the Crozet, Kerguelen and Prince Edward islands. The nest is a mound of mud and plants on an exposed ridge near the sea. The egg hatches after about 78 days. While the chick is young, one parent sits on the nest while the other searches for food.

The chick stays at the nest for about 9 months before it flies. A young albatross can take up to nine years to grow its full adult feathers.

Sources

• Wandering Albatross. Australian Museum.
• How did extinct giant birds and pterosaurs fly? A comprehensive modeling approach to evaluate soaring performance. Goto et al., PNAS Nexus, 2022.
• Flying at No Mechanical Energy Cost: Disclosing the Secret of Wandering Albatrosses. Sachs et al., PLoS ONE, 2012.
• ACAP Species Assessment: Wandering Albatross Diomedea exulans. Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 2009.
• A giant specimen of Rhamphorhynchus muensteri and comments on the ontogeny of rhamphorhynchines. Hone and McDavid, PeerJ, 2025.
• Official Basketball Rules 2026: Basketball Equipment. FIBA, 2026.