Snowy albatross
Diomedea exulans Linnaeus, 1758
The snowy albatross (Diomedea exulans) is a species in the family Diomedeidae, order Procellariiformes. Recorded adults weigh 6.95 kg to 9.11 kg and live up to 40 years. Its IUCN Red List status is Vulnerable.
Quick facts about the snowy albatross
- Weight
- 6.95 kg – 9.11 kgsrc for Weight
- Length
- Not recorded
- Wingspan
- 3 msrc for Wingspan
- Lifespan
- 40 yearssrc for Lifespan
- Diet
- Aquatic predatorsrc for Diet
- Longest recorded lifespan
- 60 years
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- marinesrc for Habitat
- Egg incubation
- 78.5 dayssrc for Egg incubation
- Young per litter or clutch
- 1src for Young per litter or clutch
- Age at maturity
- 10 yearssrc for Age at maturity
- Litters or clutches a year
- 0.51src for Litters or clutches a year
- 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 snowy albatross?
Photos of the snowy albatross
Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.
Where does the snowy albatross live?
Not recorded
What is the snowy albatross?
The snowy albatross (Diomedea exulans), also known as the wandering albatross, white-winged albatross, or goonie, is a large seabird from the family Diomedeidae; they have a circumpolar range in the Southern Ocean. It is the largest species of albatross and was long considered to be the same species as the Tristan albatross and the Antipodean albatross. Together with the Amsterdam albatross, it forms the wandering albatross species complex, which some began referring to more recently as "snowy".
The snowy albatross is one of the two largest members of the genus Diomedea (the great albatrosses), being similar in size to the southern royal albatross. It has the greatest known wingspan of any living bird and is also one of the most far-ranging birds. Some individual snowy albatrosses are known to circumnavigate the Southern Ocean three times in one year, covering more than 120,000 km (75,000 mi).
From the Wikipedia article “Snowy albatross” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Snowy_albatross&oldid=1379042248), 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 snowy albatross endangered?
The snowy albatross is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List: it faces a high risk of extinction in the wild.
- LCLeast Concern
- NTNear Threatened
- VUVulnerable
- ENEndangered
- CRCritically Endangered
- EWExtinct in the Wild
- 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 snowy albatross classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classAves
- orderProcellariiformes
- familyDiomedeidae
- genusDiomedea
- SpeciesDiomedea exulans Linnaeus, 1758
Synonyms Diomedea exulans exulans
Other names and names in other languages (66)
- Man-of-war birdEnglish
- Man-of-war birdEnglish
- ToroaEnglish
- ToroaEnglish
- Wandering albatrossEnglish
- Wandering albatrossEnglish
- Wandering albatrossEnglish
- Wandering albatross (snowy)English
- White-winged albatrossEnglish
- White-winged albatrossEnglish
- Grootmalmok/GrootalbatrosAfrikaans
- Grootmalmok (Grootalbatros)Afrikaans
- قطرس متجولArabic
- القطرس التائهArabic
- Альбатрос вандроўныBelarusian
- Странстващ албатросBulgarian
- স্নোয়ি অ্যালবাট্রসBangla
- Albatroz kantreatBreton
- albatros viatgerCatalan
- albatros stěhovavýCzech
- albatros crwydrolWelsh
- VandrealbatrosDanish
- WanderalbatrosGerman
- Περιπλανόμενο άλμπατροςGreek
- vagalbatrosoEsperanto
- albatros erranteSpanish
- Albatros viajeroSpanish
- rändalbatrossEstonian
- آلباتروس سرگردانPersian
- jättiläisalbatrossiFinnish
- Albatros hurleurFrench
- Grand Albatros neigeuxFrench
- Alabatras fánachIrish
- אלבטרוסHebrew
- אלבטרוס נודדHebrew
- vándoralbatroszHungarian
- Albatros kelanaIndonesian
- HrímtrosiIcelandic
- Albatro urlatoreItalian
- Albatros urlatoreItalian
- ワタリアホウドリJapanese
- paprastasis albatrosasLithuanian
- klaidoņalbatrossLatvian
- Хэрмэл салхич шувуу <!--Mongolian
- သမုဒ္ဒရာစင်ယော်ကြီးBurmese
- သမုဒ္ဒရာစင်ယော်ကြီး-->Burmese
- Grote AlbatrosDutch
- reuzenalbatrosDutch
- vandrealbatrossNorwegian
- albatros wędrownyPolish
- پاندھی البٹراسWestern Panjabi
- albatroz-errantePortuguese
- albatroz-gigantePortuguese
- Albatroz-viageiroPortuguese
- Albatros călătorRomanian
- Странствующий альбатросRussian
- StuoralbatrossaNorthern Sami
- albatros sťahovavýSlovak
- klateški albatrosSlovenian
- Albatros lutalicaSerbian
- vandringsalbatrossSwedish
- Katafa lalahiTongan
- gezgin albatrosTurkish
- Альбатрос мандрівнийUkrainian
- Мандрівний альбатросUkrainian
- 漂泊信天翁Chinese
Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistTAXREFWikidataWoRMSIUCN Red List
Relatives of the snowy albatross
Other species in the same genus Diomedea.
Southern royal albatross
Diomedea epomophora
Amsterdam albatross
Diomedea amsterdamensis
Tristan albatross
Diomedea dabbenena
Northern royal albatross
Diomedea sanfordi
Antipodean albatross
Diomedea antipodensis
CompareSnowy albatross vs Southern royal albatrossSnowy albatross vs Amsterdam albatrossSnowy albatross vs Tristan albatrossSnowy albatross vs Northern royal albatross
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
How big is the snowy albatross?
An adult snowy albatross weighs 6.95 kg – 9.11 kg and has a wingspan of 3 m, according to values recorded on Wikidata.
Is the snowy albatross endangered?
The snowy albatross is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, meaning it faces a high risk of extinction in the wild.
How long does the snowy albatross live?
The snowy albatross has a recorded lifespan of 40 years.
What kind of animal is the snowy albatross?
The snowy albatross (Diomedea exulans) 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.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
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.
CreatureData. (2026). Snowy albatross (Diomedea exulans). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/snowy-albatross
“Snowy albatross (Diomedea exulans).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/snowy-albatross.
@misc{snowy_albatross_2026,
title = {Snowy albatross (Diomedea exulans)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/snowy-albatross},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}