Albatrosses are
large seabirds in the family Diomedeidae. They are
related to the procellariids, storm petrels, and diving petrels in
the order Procellariiformes. They range widely in the Southern Ocean and
the North Pacific. They are absent from the North Atlantic,
although fossil remains show they once occurred there and
occasional vagrants are found. Albatrosses
are among the largest of flying birds, and species of the genus Diomedea
have the longest wingspans of any extant birds, reaching up to
3.7 m (12 ft). The albatrosses
are usually regarded as falling into four genera, but disagreement exists
over the number of species.