Grey-headed albatrosses breed on sub-Antarctic islands along with black-browed albatrosses, but they are very different species. Grey-heads are much less numerous, breed only every second year, tend to feed a long way from breeding sites, have a different diet and, like wandering albatrosses, may circumnavigate the world in years off breeding. They're good divers and are aggressive at taking baits from longlines. Because of their relatively low numbers, low reproductive rate and proficiency at stealing baits, grey-headed albatrosses are particularly vulnerable to the effects of longline fishing.

Even during breeding seasons, when time away from colonies is limited by parental duties, albatrosses undertake marathon feeding trips. Satellite tracking studies of grey-headed albatrosses from Diego Ramirez island, near Cape Horn reveal that birds might fly up 13,000 km - and almost half-way to New Zealand - on a single feeding flight. They also fly deep into Antarctic waters, as far as 67 degrees South, searching for food.

In non-breeding years (every second year) grey-headed albatrosses circumnavigate the entire world, sometimes twice. This grey-headed albatrosses bred at South Georgia in the summer of 1998/1999, flew around the world in the winter of 1999, spent the summer of 1999/2000 in the South Atlantic then migrated around the world again in the winter of 2000. It returned to South Georgia for the 2000/2001 breeding season.

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Grey-headed Albatrosses
Photo © Graham Robertson

© British Antarctic Survey