The Waved Albatross, Phoebastria irrorata - is the only Albatross that lives and breeds in the tropics. It is the largest bird of the Galapagos Islands. They are medium-sized Albatrosses. They are distinctive for their yellowish-cream neck and head, which contrasts with their mostly brownish bodies. Even more distinctive is the very long, bright yellow bill, which looks disproportionately large in comparison to the relatively small head and long, slender neck. They also have chestnut brown upper parts and underparts, except for the breast, with fine barring, a little coarser on the rump. They have brown upper-wings, back, and tail, along with a whitish breast and underwings. They have blue feet. On land they walk with a waddle and appear to be very clumsy, but in the air, they are among the most graceful of all sea birds.

The Waved Albatross derives its name from the wave-like pattern of its feathers.

They spend part of the year at sea and do not travel very far, nor are they gone for a very long time. From January through to March, they are found in the Pacific east of the Galapagos, and along the coasts of Ecuador and northern Peru. Many often congregate in the Gulf of Guayaquil. They begin to return in mid-late March, the males arriving first. Waved albatrosses mate for life, so the male returns to the previous year's breeding territory and waits for his partner to arrive.

Waved albatrosses, like other albatrosses, engage in a very lengthy, noisy, and complex courtship ritual. The dance involves bill-fencing, in which the partners bend, face each other, and rapidly slap their bills back and forth. In another step each faces the other in an upright posture, sometimes poising with bill wide open. The bills are then shut with a loud clap. Sometimes the birds will clatter their bills rapidly. The dance also involves bowing, and parading around one another with the head swaying side to side in an exagerated sway, accompanied by a nasal "anh-a-annhh" sound. These steps are interspersed frequently with bouts of bill fencing. The dance is longer and more involved in new pairs, or in pairs that failed to breed in the previous season.

Between mid-April and July the pair produces one egg, which is incubated by both parents for about two months. The chick is dark brown, and covered with curly dark brown downy feathers. For the first few weeks after hatching, one parent guards the chick while the other forages for food. By the end of December, the chicks have fledged, and they leave their nurseries with their parents and head for the western Pacific. Although their parents return to breed the following year, the fledglings remain away for five to six years, at which time they also return to begin breeding for the first time.

The primary food sources of the Waved Albatross are Squid, Fish and Crustaceans. When foraging the Waved Albatross finds points in the ocean where prey will be more surfaced. They will forage 10 to100 km away from the place where the chicks are nesting to get food for them.