CreatureData

Shy albatross

Thalassarche cauta (Gould, 1841)

NTNear Threatenedbirds

The shy albatross (Thalassarche cauta) is a species in the family Diomedeidae, order Procellariiformes. Recorded adults weigh 3.66 kg to 4.31 kg and live up to 28.5 years. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia. Its IUCN Red List status is Near Threatened.

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

Quick facts about the shy albatross

Weight
3.66 kg – 4.31 kgsrc for Weight
Length
Not recorded
Wingspan
2.1 m – 2.6 msrc for Wingspan
Lifespan
28.5 yearssrc for Lifespan
Diet
Aquatic predatorsrc for Diet
Longest recorded lifespan
40 years
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
marinesrc for Habitat
Egg incubation
69 dayssrc for Egg incubation
Young per litter or clutch
1src for Young per litter or clutch
Age at maturity
6 yearssrc for Age at maturity
Litters or clutches a year
0.5src for Litters or clutches a year
Lifestyle
Aquaticsrc for Lifestyle
Migration
Partialsrc for Migration
Conservation status
Near Threatened (IUCN)src for Conservation status
Countries on record
1 countrysrc for Countries on record

How big is the shy albatross?

SHY ALBATROSS · WINGSPAN 2.6 MADULT HUMAN · HEIGHT 1.7 M
At 2.6 m, the recorded maximum wingspan of the shy albatross is about 1.5 times the height of an adult human (1.7 m, a fixed reference used for scale).

Photos of the shy albatross

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

Shy albatross (Thalassarche cauta)
Mjobling at English Wikipedia · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Where does the shy 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 shy 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 shy albatross?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

The shy albatross (Thalassarche cauta), also known as the shy mollymawk, is a medium-sized albatross that breeds on three remote islands off the coast of Tasmania, Australia, in the southern Indian Ocean. Its lifespan is about 60 years, and it has been seen as far afield as South Africa and the Pacific coast of the United States. As of June 2020, the species is listed as "Endangered" in Australia; there are thought to be 15,000 pairs of shy albatross left. It is Australia's only endemic albatross.

Some authorities call this species the white-capped albatross, but that name is more commonly applied to Thalassarche cauta steadi.

From the Wikipedia article “Shy albatross” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Shy_albatross&oldid=1379047663), 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 shy albatross endangered?

The shy albatross is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List: it is close to qualifying as threatened.

  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 Near Threatened species. What the categories mean.

How is the shy albatross classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classAves
  4. orderProcellariiformes
  5. familyDiomedeidae
  6. genusThalassarche
  7. SpeciesThalassarche cauta (Gould, 1841)

Synonyms Diomedea cauta, Diomedea cauta cauta, Diomedella cauta rohui, Diomedella cauta wallaca

Other names and names in other languages (60)
  • Salvin's albatrossEnglish
  • SHALEnglish
  • Shy mollymawkEnglish
  • White-capped albatrossEnglish
  • White-capped mollymawkEnglish
  • Whitecapped albatrossEnglish
  • BloubekmalmokAfrikaans
  • BloubekalbatrosAfrikaans
  • Bloubekmalmok (Bloubekalbatros)Afrikaans
  • قطرس خجولArabic
  • Белоглав албатросBulgarian
  • Albatroz abafBreton
  • albatros tímidCatalan
  • albatros šelfovýCzech
  • Albatros swilWelsh
  • Hvidkronet AlbatrosDanish
  • TasmanalbatrosGerman
  • WeißkappenalbatrosGerman
  • Timema albatrosoEsperanto
  • blankĉapa albatrosoEsperanto
  • Albatros cautoSpanish
  • Albatros corona blancaSpanish
  • Albatros de corona blancaSpanish
  • Albatros de frente blancaSpanish
  • pagualbatrossEstonian
  • آلباتروس خجالتیPersian
  • isoalbatrossiFinnish
  • Albatros timideFrench
  • Albatros à cape blancheFrench
  • Alabatras cúthailIrish
  • אלבטרוס לבן-כיפהHebrew
  • tasmán albatroszHungarian
  • Albatros pemaluIndonesian
  • RoktrosiIcelandic
  • Albatro cautoItalian
  • ハジロアホウドリJapanese
  • baltakepuris albatrosasLithuanian
  • FotsilohaMalagasy
  • ToroaMāori
  • Toroa (mokepūihi)Māori
  • Ош калпакан альбатросWestern Mari
  • Tónteel tsídiitsoh bitsiitʼáád łigaaígííNavajo
  • witkapalbatrosDutch
  • svartflekkalbatrossNorwegian
  • albatros szarodziobyPolish
  • چٹسرا البٹراسWestern Panjabi
  • albatroz-ariscoPortuguese
  • albatroz-de-coroa-brancaPortuguese
  • Осторожный альбатросRussian
  • Белошапочный альбатросRussian
  • ČáhppesdielkoalbatrossaNorthern Sami
  • albatros bledohlavýSlovak
  • plahi albatrosSlovenian
  • Belokapi albatrosSerbian
  • gråkindad albatrossSwedish
  • Mahçup AlbatrosTurkish
  • альбатрос сірощокийUkrainian
  • Білошапочний альбатросUkrainian
  • 白顶信天翁Chinese
  • 白頂信天翁〔灰信天翁〕Chinese

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistTAXREFWikidataWoRMSIUCN Red List

Relatives of the shy albatross

Other species in the same genus Thalassarche.

CompareShy albatross vs Black-browed albatrossShy albatross vs Grey-headed albatrossShy albatross vs Atlantic yellow-nosed albatrossShy albatross vs Buller's albatross

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the shy albatross?

An adult shy albatross weighs 3.66 kg – 4.31 kg and has a wingspan of 2.1 m – 2.6 m, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Where does the shy albatross live?

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

Is the shy albatross endangered?

The shy albatross is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is close to qualifying as threatened.

How long does the shy albatross live?

The shy albatross has a recorded lifespan of 28.5 years.

What kind of animal is the shy albatross?

The shy albatross (Thalassarche cauta) 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.

Embed a card for this animal on your own site

Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.

Preview the card

APA

CreatureData. (2026). Shy albatross (Thalassarche cauta). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/shy-albatross

MLA

“Shy albatross (Thalassarche cauta).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/shy-albatross.

BibTeX
@misc{shy_albatross_2026,
  title = {Shy albatross (Thalassarche cauta)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/shy-albatross},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}