Albatross
Albatrosse are large seabirds which range widely across the oceans of Western Creation, though they are absent from the Inner Sea.
Albatross wingspans can stretch to 5 yards in length. The bill is large, strong and sharp-edged, the upper mandible terminating in a large hook. This bill is composed of several horny plates, and along the sides are the two long "tubes" or nostrils. These tubes allow the albatrosses to measure the exact airspeed in flight, which is needed in order to perform the dynamic gliding maneuver. Since the albatross finds food in-flight, smell is of little use, as any object in the sea cannot be smelled by a fast flying bird. The main food locating sense is eye-sight. Their legs are strong for seabirds, allowing them to move comfortably on land.
Albatrosses are able to drink salt water, purging excess Salt via an enlarged nasal gland at the base of the bill, above their eyes. Theologians find this of great interest, its origin traced to a little god inhabiting the bird along with its own responsible spirit, not self-aware but mimicking the powers of the more well-known Salt Gods (who are known to hate the birds). Studies of albatross pantheons were often part of the basic curriculum on Microtheurgy for mortal sorcerer-technicians during the Golden Age, but the practice has faded with the discipline.
The adult plumage of most of the albatrosses is dark upper-wing and back, with white undersides, often compared to that of a gull. Albatrosses take several years to get their full adult breeding plumage.
Albatrosses are highly efficient in the air, using dynamic soaring and slope soaring to cover great distances with little exertion. The wingspans of the largest albatrosses stretch in excess of five yards. The wings are stiff and cambered, with thickened streamlined leading edges. Albatrosses travel huge distances with a soaring technique that involves repeatedly rising into wind and descending downwind thus gaining energy from the vertical wind gradient. The bird descends with the wind accelerating, then turns head to the slower wind over the water, climbing up to just before stall speed, the turn downwind again descending to accelerate with the higher altitude stronger wind and gravity. And so on. This maneuver allows the bird to cover almost 700 miles a day, without flapping its wings once. They are aided in soaring by a shoulder-lock, a sheet of tendon that locks the wing when fully extended, allowing the wing to be kept outstretched without any muscle expenditure. This efficient long-distance traveling underlies the albatross's success as a long-distance forager, covering great distances and expending little energy looking for patchily distributed food sources. Their adaptation to gliding flight makes them dependent on wind and waves, however, as their long wings are ill-suited to powered flight. Albatrosses in calm seas are forced to rest on the ocean's surface until the wind picks up again. When taking off, albatrosses need to take a run up to allow enough air to move under the wing to provide lift.
They feed on squid, fish and krill by either scavenging, surface seizing or diving. Albatrosses are colonial, nesting for the most part on remote oceanic islands, often nesting together. Pair bonds between males and females form over several years, with the use of highly complex 'ritualized' dances, and will last for the life of the pair. A breeding season can take over a year from laying to fledging, with a single egg laid in each breeding attempt.
