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Wandering Albatross Molt
Those huge wings require special care!
© Ed Dunens CC
Most birds molt and regrow their flight or wing feathers—one at a time along each wing—to stay in prime condition for flying. But for a Wandering Albatross, with a whopping 10- to 12-foot wingspan, that’s a big job! It takes the large albatrosses a full year to molt, and they have to put off breeding until the next year. It’s one or the other. But they make the birds incredibly efficient flyers and true masters of the wind.
BirdNote®
Wandering Albatross Molt
Written by Bob Sundstrom
This is BirdNote.
(American Robin ML133356 G Keller)
Most birds molt and regrow their flight or wing feathers—one at a time along each wing—to stay in prime condition for flying. For an American Robin with a 17-inch wingspan, that’s 23 feathers per wing, molted and regrown over two months, just after the nesting season. Every year.
Now let’s scale up to the wing molt of a Wandering Albatross, with a whopping 10- to 12-foot wingspan.
[Wandering Albatrosses calling, https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/203922121, 0.16-.22]
Its long, narrow wings make the Wandering Albatross the largest flying bird — and an incredibly efficient flyer. Sure, its gangly wings are awkward when it takes off, but they’re ideal for soaring above the ocean. Once aloft, a Wandering Albatross rarely if ever flaps. A tendon locks in place in each wing, and it rides the air currents with little effort. These birds are supreme gliders.
(NatureSFX # 02 Wind-moderate-soft)
[Wandering Albatrosses calling, https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/203922121, 0.16-.22]
With that gargantuan wingspan, it takes the large albatrosses a full year to molt, and they have to put off breeding until the next year. It’s one or the other.
Their long wings require a lot of time and energy, but they make the Wandering Albatross a true master of the wind.
For BirdNote, I’m Michael Stein.
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Senior Producer: John Kessler
Production Manager: Allison Wilson
Producer: Mark Bramhill
Associate Producer: Ellen Blackstone
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. American Robin ML 133356 Recorded by G Keller. Wandering Albatross ML 203922121 Recorded by J Del Hoyo. Wind SFX recorded by Gordon Hempton.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2021 BirdNote April 2021 Narrator: Michael Stein
ID# WAAL-01-2021-04-12 WAAL-01
https://blogs.bu.edu/biolocomotion/2011/12/13/the-wandering-albatross/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15536648/
http://slatermuseum.blogspot.com/2010/09/different-molt-strategies.html
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/the-basics-feather-molt/
Bob Sundstrom
Writer
Michael Stein
NarratorSights & Sounds
