Which bird has the longest wingspan of any living bird?

The wandering albatross has the longest known wingspan of any living bird. Its enormous, narrow wings can stretch to about 3.5 metres or more, allowing it to travel vast distances over the Southern Ocean with remarkably little flapping.

The bird is now often treated taxonomically as the snowy albatross, Diomedea exulans. The name “wandering” reflects its wide-ranging lifestyle: it breeds on remote subantarctic islands and forages across the southern oceans, using dynamic soaring to harvest energy from wind gradients above the waves.

Its wingspan is an adaptation for efficiency rather than speed. The albatross locks its long wings and glides for hours, sometimes covering thousands of kilometres while searching for squid, fish and carrion. It can even circle the Southern Ocean repeatedly during a year.

The southern royal albatross is a frequent source of confusion because it is similarly huge and may rival the wandering albatross in body size. However, the established record for the greatest measured wingspan among living birds belongs to the wandering albatross.