Albatrosses are masters of soaring flight, able to glide over vast tracts of the ocean without flapping their wings. So fully have they adapted to the oceanic existence that they spend the first six or more years of their long lives (which last upwards of 50 years) without ever touching land. ⁠ ⁠ Most live in the Southern Hemisphere, the exceptions being the black-footed albatross of the Hawaiian archipelago and a few nearby islands; the short-tailed albatross, which breeds near Japan; the waved albatross of equatorial Galápagos; and the Laysan albatross of the North Pacific.⁠ ⁠ _____⁠ ⁠ Source: Cornell Lab of Ornithology⁠ ⁠ ⁠ #albatross #bird #biology #science