Laysan Albatross

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The Laysan Albatross and Black-footed Albatross are two of the 3 species of albatross that occur in Alaskan waters. Albatrosses are by far the largest seabirds found in Alaska, but the alaskan species are small compared to albatross elsewhere. Laysan, Black-footed, and Short-tailed Albatross have a wingspan of almost two meters, which is half that of the largest albatrosses. Albatrosses do not nest in Alaska but they migrate there each year after having bred in such far away places as the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and Torishima Island in Japan. On these remote uninhabited islands, albatrosses nest in huge, dense colonies. Nearly all of the 400,000 breeding pairs of Laysan Albatross and 50,000 pairs of Black-footed Albatross nest in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. The Latin family name for albatrosses is Diomedeidae, which comes from the name of the Greek hero of the Trojan War, Diomedes. The Greek gods exiled Diomedes to an isolated island and turned all of his companions into large, white birds resembling swans.