A

lbatrosses glide on the winds of the oceans, their long narrow wings allow them to stay aloft for months alighting only to feed and drink (they drink seawater). Of the 13 species only three breed north of the equator, but over half a million Laysan Albatrosses nest on the outer-most islands of Hawaii where they were slaughtered for feathers to stuff pillows and mattresses. To stop this President Theodore Roosevelt designated these islands a wildlife preserve in 1909. The Short-tailed Albatross, largest in the North Pacific has a wingspan reaching 13 feet. Almost wiped out by plume hunters, this rare bird now nests again on Torishima Islet, south of Tokyo.

Cool Fact: In the “Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, after a sailor kills an albatross the wind drops and the ship cannot sail; the sailors begin to die of thirst. The sailor blamed for this disaster has the dead bird hung around his neck as punishment. Having an ‘albatross around one’s neck’ means feeling guilt, shame or anxiety.

What other birds’ names start with A?