albatross california rare bird galapagos scientists.

Scientists on a research vessel off the California coast are marveling at a rare find — a waved albatross was spotted soaring over the Pacific. It’s only the second time the species has been recorded north of Central America. The yellow-billed bird with black button eyes can have an 8-foot wingspan and spends much of its life airborne over the ocean. Its recent sighting off California has researchers wondering how and why a bird known to breed in the Galapagos Islands, roughly 3,000 miles away, ventured so far north.