Largest Bird Wingspans

About This Dataset

The living birds with the widest recorded wingspans, in metres. The wandering albatross of the southern oceans holds the record at about 3.63 m - nearly the length of a small car - enabling it to glide vast distances with barely a wingbeat.

✨ AI Insight

The wandering albatross (3.63 m) and great white pelican (3.6 m) lead by the narrowest of margins, with the southern royal albatross (3.5 m) close behind - the three widest-winged birds alive separated by barely 13 centimetres. The list splits neatly by lifestyle: ocean-gliding albatrosses and water-associated pelicans dominate the very top, while the soaring land birds - Andean condor (3.3 m), marabou stork (3.2 m) and California condor (3.05 m) - form the next tier, using their broad wings to ride thermals rather than cross oceans. The trumpeter swan (2.8 m) closes the list. The clustering shows that a 3-metre-plus wingspan is the practical ceiling for powered flight, achieved only by birds that spend their lives soaring or gliding to offset the cost of such enormous wings.

Source: Wikipedia - Largest Living Flying Birds by Wingspan

Key Findings

Auto-computed highlights from this dataset

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Wandering albatross leads with 4 in All Time.

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Average value in All Time: 3 · median: 3.

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Gap in All Time: Wandering albatross is 1.3× larger than Trumpeter swan.