CreatureData

Short-tailed albatross

Phoebastria albatrus (Pallas, 1769)

VUVulnerablebirds

The short-tailed albatross (Phoebastria albatrus) is a species in the family Diomedeidae, order Procellariiformes. Recorded adults weigh 4 kg to 4.41 kg and live up to 17.6 years. Its IUCN Red List status is Vulnerable.

Short-tailed albatross (Phoebastria albatrus)
Photo: Jlfutari at English Wikipedia · CC BY 2.5 · Wikimedia Commons

Quick facts about the short-tailed albatross

Weight
4 kg – 4.41 kgsrc for Weight
Length
Not recorded
Wingspan
2.13 m – 2.4 msrc for Wingspan
Lifespan
17.6 yearssrc for Lifespan
Diet
Aquatic predatorsrc for Diet
Longest recorded lifespan
25 years
Main food
teuthidasrc for Main food
Habitat
marinesrc for Habitat
Egg incubation
57 dayssrc for Egg incubation
Young per litter or clutch
1src for Young per litter or clutch
Age at maturity
5.35 yearssrc for Age at maturity
Lifestyle
Aquaticsrc for Lifestyle
Migration
Partialsrc for Migration
Conservation status
Vulnerable (IUCN)src for Conservation status
Countries on record
Not recorded

How big is the short-tailed albatross?

SHORT-TAILED ALBATROSS · WINGSPAN 2.4 MADULT HUMAN · HEIGHT 1.7 M
At 2.4 m, the recorded maximum wingspan of the short-tailed albatross is about 1.4 times the height of an adult human (1.7 m, a fixed reference used for scale).

Where does the short-tailed albatross live?

Not recorded

What is the short-tailed albatross?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

The short-tailed albatross or Steller's albatross (Phoebastria albatrus) is a large rare seabird from the North Pacific. Although related to the other North Pacific albatrosses, it also exhibits behavioural and morphological links to the albatrosses of the Southern Ocean. It was described by the German naturalist Peter Simon Pallas from skins collected by Georg Wilhelm Steller (after whom its other common name is derived). Once common, it was brought to the edge of extinction by the trade in feathers, but with protection efforts underway since the 1950s, the species is in the process of recovering with an increasing population trend. It is divided into two distinct subpopulations, one of which breeds on Tori-shima in the Izu islands south of Japan, and the other primarily on the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.

From the Wikipedia article “Short-tailed albatross” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Short-tailed_albatross&oldid=1371443859), 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 short-tailed albatross endangered?

The short-tailed albatross is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List: it faces a 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 Vulnerable species. What the categories mean.

How is the short-tailed albatross classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classAves
  4. orderProcellariiformes
  5. familyDiomedeidae
  6. genusPhoebastria
  7. SpeciesPhoebastria albatrus (Pallas, 1769)

Synonyms Campephilus albatrus, Diomedea albatrus, Diomedea albatrus albatrus, Diomedea albatrus albatrus, Diomedea brachiura, Diomedea derogata, Diomedea howardae, Diomedea leptorhyncha

Other names and names in other languages (38)
  • Golden GooneyEnglish
  • Steller's albatrossEnglish
  • قطرس قصير الذيلArabic
  • Късоопашат албатросBulgarian
  • Albatroz lost berrBreton
  • albatros cuacurtCatalan
  • Ош тупан альбатросMari
  • albatros bělohřbetýCzech
  • Korthalet AlbatrosDanish
  • KurzschwanzalbatrosGerman
  • kurtvosta albatrosoEsperanto
  • Albatros rabónSpanish
  • Albatros colicortoSpanish
  • kuldpea-albatrossEstonian
  • japaninalbatrossiFinnish
  • Albatros à queue courteFrench
  • אלבטרוס שטלרHebrew
  • rövidfarkú albatroszHungarian
  • Albatros codacortaItalian
  • アホウドリJapanese
  • 알바트로스Korean
  • baltanugaris albatrosasLithuanian
  • īsastes albatrossLatvian
  • Steller-albatrosDutch
  • Stellers AlbatrosDutch
  • gulhodealbatrossNorwegian
  • albatros krótkosternyPolish
  • albatroz-de-rabo-curtoPortuguese
  • albatroz-de-cabeça-amarelaPortuguese
  • Albatroz-de-cauda-curtaPortuguese
  • Белоспинный альбатросRussian
  • albatros bielochrbtýSlovak
  • Žutoglavi albatrosSerbian
  • gulnackad albatrossSwedish
  • Alaca AlbatrosTurkish
  • альбатрос жовтоголовийUkrainian
  • Короткохвостий альбатросUkrainian
  • 短尾信天翁Chinese

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistWikidataWoRMSIUCN Red List

Relatives of the short-tailed albatross

Other species in the same genus Phoebastria.

CompareShort-tailed albatross vs Waved albatrossShort-tailed albatross vs Laysan albatrossShort-tailed albatross vs Black-footed albatross

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the short-tailed albatross?

An adult short-tailed albatross weighs 4 kg – 4.41 kg and has a wingspan of 2.13 m – 2.4 m, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Is the short-tailed albatross endangered?

The short-tailed albatross is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, meaning it faces a high risk of extinction in the wild.

What does the short-tailed albatross eat?

Its recorded main food is teuthida.

How long does the short-tailed albatross live?

The short-tailed albatross has a recorded lifespan of 17.6 years.

What kind of animal is the short-tailed albatross?

The short-tailed albatross (Phoebastria albatrus) 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). Short-tailed albatross (Phoebastria albatrus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/short-tailed-albatross

MLA

“Short-tailed albatross (Phoebastria albatrus).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/short-tailed-albatross.

BibTeX
@misc{short_tailed_albatross_2026,
  title = {Short-tailed albatross (Phoebastria albatrus)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/short-tailed-albatross},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}