---
title: "Southern Royal Albatross"
description: "Diomedea epomophora — Birds. The southern royal albatross or toroa (Diomedea epomophora) is a large seabird in the albatross family."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/animal/southern-royal-albatross
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Southern Royal Albatross

> Diomedea epomophora — Birds. The southern royal albatross or toroa  (Diomedea epomophora) is a large seabird in the albatross family.

- Scientific name: *Diomedea epomophora*
- Category: `birds` (Birds)
- Habitats: `sea` (Sea & coast)
- iNaturalist observations: 1643
- Wikidata: [Q748236](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q748236)
- iNaturalist taxon: [4124](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/4124)

## Names

- en: Southern Royal Albatross
- de: Königsalbatros
- es: Albatros real del sur
- fr: Albatros royal
- nl: Zuidelijke koningsalbatros
- pt: Albatroz-real-meridional
- pl: Albatros królewski

## Countries with the most observations

NZ (599), AU (20), CL (13), AR (10), FK (4)

## Summary

The southern royal albatross or toroa  (Diomedea epomophora) is a large seabird in the albatross family. With an average wingspan of more than 3 m (9.8 ft), it is one of the two largest species of albatross, together with the wandering albatross. Recent studies indicate that the southern royal albatross may, on average, be somewhat larger than the wandering albatross in mass and have a similar wingspan, although other sources indicate roughly similar size for the two species and the wandering species may have a larger average (and maximum) wingspan in some colonies.

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_royal_albatross

## Photo

![Southern Royal Albatross](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/southern-royal-albatross/medium.jpg)

Photo: Mark Fraser · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/219695685

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/southern-royal-albatross?lang=en` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).