Sooty Albatross

The sooty albatross (Phoebetria fusca), also known to sailors as the Quaker, is a species of marine bird belonging to the albatross family Diomedeidae. It is a medium-sized albatross that sports a sooty-brown or sooty-black color. It can be found in the southern Atlantic Ocean, the southern Indian Ocean, and the Southern Ocean. This bird scavenges for squid, fish, and carrion. Like other albatrosses, these birds mate for life and return to the same breeding spots every season. A single pair will mate every other year on a variety of islands in the southern Atlantic Ocean and the southern Indian Ocean islands. This bird is an endangered species and conservation efforts are taking place. == Taxonomy == The sooty albatross belongs to the genus Phoebetria of which there are two species: P. palpebrata (Foster, 1785) and P. fusca (Hilsenberg, 1822). The two species were discovered separately but were not placed in the same genus until 1913, which was later confirmed by cytochrome-b gene sequencing. This species is monotypic with no subspecies. Sooty albatrosses belong to the Diomedeidae family, which comprises albatrosses and mollymawks. Of the Diomedeidae, the sooty albatross belongs to the genus Phoebetria, one of the four genera in…