CreatureData

Grey-headed albatross

Thalassarche chrysostoma (J. R. Forster, 1785)

ENEndangeredbirds

The grey-headed albatross (Thalassarche chrysostoma) is a species in the family Diomedeidae, order Procellariiformes. Recorded adults weigh 3.5 kg to 3.9 kg and live up to 30 years. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia. Its IUCN Red List status is Endangered.

Grey-headed albatross (Thalassarche chrysostoma)
Photo: JJ Harrison ( https://www.jjharrison.com.au/ ) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Quick facts about the grey-headed albatross

Weight
3.5 kg – 3.9 kgsrc for Weight
Length
Not recorded
Wingspan
2.18 msrc for Wingspan
Lifespan
30 yearssrc for Lifespan
Diet
Aquatic predatorsrc for Diet
Longest recorded lifespan
47.2 years
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
marinesrc for Habitat
Egg incubation
72 dayssrc for Egg incubation
Young per litter or clutch
1src for Young per litter or clutch
Age at maturity
12 yearssrc for Age at maturity
Litters or clutches a year
0.58src for Litters or clutches a year
Lifestyle
Aquaticsrc for Lifestyle
Migration
Partialsrc for Migration
Conservation status
Endangered (IUCN)src for Conservation status
Countries on record
1 countrysrc for Countries on record

How big is the grey-headed albatross?

GREY-HEADED ALBATROSS · WINGSPAN 2.18 MADULT HUMAN · HEIGHT 1.7 M
At 2.18 m, the recorded maximum wingspan of the grey-headed albatross is about 1.3 times the height of an adult human (1.7 m, a fixed reference used for scale).

Photos of the grey-headed albatross

Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.

1 more photo exists under a licence we cannot display: view at source.

Where does the grey-headed albatross live?

Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.

The grey-headed albatross is listed for 1 country.

Australia
  • Listed
  • Not listed
small islands are not drawn at this scale

The same countries as a list

  1. Australia

Why a country list is not a range map

Listed by: ITIS (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.

What is the grey-headed albatross?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

The grey-headed albatross (Thalassarche chrysostoma) also known as the gray-headed mollymawk, is a large seabird from the albatross family. It has a circumpolar distribution, nesting on isolated islands in the Southern Ocean and feeding at high latitudes, further south than any of the other mollymawks. Its name derives from its ashy-gray head, throat and upper neck.

From the Wikipedia article “Grey-headed albatross” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Grey-headed_albatross&oldid=1379696629), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.

Is the grey-headed albatross endangered?

The grey-headed albatross is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List: it faces a very high risk of extinction in the wild.

  1. LCLeast Concern
  2. NTNear Threatened
  3. VUVulnerable
  4. ENEndangered
  5. CRCritically Endangered
  6. EWExtinct in the Wild
  7. EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Endangered species. What the categories mean.

How is the grey-headed albatross classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classAves
  4. orderProcellariiformes
  5. familyDiomedeidae
  6. genusThalassarche
  7. SpeciesThalassarche chrysostoma (J. R. Forster, 1785)

Synonyms Diomedea chrysostoma, Diomedea chrysostoma chrysostoma, Diomedea chrysostoma chrysostoma, Diomedea culminata, Thalassarche chrysostoma chrysostoma, Thalassogeron desolationis

Other names and names in other languages (50)
  • Gray-headed albatrossEnglish
  • Grey-headed mollymawkEnglish
  • Grey-headed mollymawkEnglish
  • GryskopalbatrosAfrikaans
  • Gryskopmalmok (Gryskopalbatros)Afrikaans
  • قطرس رأس رماديArabic
  • قطرس رمادي الرأسArabic
  • Сивоглав албатросBulgarian
  • Albatroz penn grisBreton
  • albatros capgrísCatalan
  • albatros šedohlavýCzech
  • Albatros penllwydWelsh
  • Gråhovedet AlbatrosDanish
  • GraukopfalbatrosGerman
  • grizkapa albatrosoEsperanto
  • Albatros cabecigrísSpanish
  • Albatros cabeza grisSpanish
  • Albatros de cabeza grisSpanish
  • hallpea-albatrossEstonian
  • آلباتروس سرخاکستریPersian
  • harmaapääalbatrossiFinnish
  • Albatros à tête griseFrench
  • Alabatras ceannliathIrish
  • אלבטרוס אפור-ראשHebrew
  • szürkefejű albatroszHungarian
  • Albatros kepala-abu-abuIndonesian
  • SúgtrosiIcelandic
  • Albatro testagrigiaItalian
  • Albatros testagrigiaItalian
  • ハイガシラアホウドリJapanese
  • pilkagalvis albatrosasLithuanian
  • Луды вуян альбатросWestern Mari
  • Tónteel tsídiitsoh bitsiiʼ łibáhígííNavajo
  • gråhodealbatrossNorwegian Bokmål
  • grijskopalbatrosDutch
  • gråhovudalbatrossNorwegian Nynorsk
  • albatros szarogłowyPolish
  • albatroz-de-cabeça-cinzentaPortuguese
  • albatroz-de-cabeça-cinzaPortuguese
  • Сероголовый альбатросRussian
  • RánesoaialbatrossaNorthern Sami
  • albatros sivohlavýSlovak
  • Sivoglavi albatrosSerbian
  • gråhuvad albatrossSwedish
  • Boz Başlı AlbatrosTurkish
  • gri basli albatrosTurkish
  • Сіроголовий альбатросUkrainian
  • альбатрос сіроголовийUkrainian
  • 灰头信天翁Chinese
  • 灰頭信天翁Chinese

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistTAXREFWikidataWoRMSIUCN Red List

Relatives of the grey-headed albatross

Other species in the same genus Thalassarche.

CompareGrey-headed albatross vs Black-browed albatrossGrey-headed albatross vs Shy albatrossGrey-headed albatross vs Atlantic yellow-nosed albatrossGrey-headed albatross vs Buller's albatross

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the grey-headed albatross?

An adult grey-headed albatross weighs 3.5 kg – 3.9 kg and has a wingspan of 2.18 m, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Where does the grey-headed albatross live?

Catalogue of Life checklists list the grey-headed albatross for 1 country: Australia. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.

Is the grey-headed albatross endangered?

The grey-headed albatross is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, meaning it faces a very high risk of extinction in the wild.

How long does the grey-headed albatross live?

The grey-headed albatross has a recorded lifespan of 30 years.

What kind of animal is the grey-headed albatross?

The grey-headed albatross (Thalassarche chrysostoma) belongs to the family Diomedeidae in the order Procellariiformes.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Grey-headed albatross (Thalassarche chrysostoma). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/grey-headed-albatross

MLA

“Grey-headed albatross (Thalassarche chrysostoma).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/grey-headed-albatross.

BibTeX
@misc{grey_headed_albatross_2026,
  title = {Grey-headed albatross (Thalassarche chrysostoma)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/grey-headed-albatross},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}