[9] [10] The adult bird has chocolate brown upper parts and is white on its face mask, throat, lower breast, and belly.

[11] Because of its rarity, the feeding ecology and at-sea distribution of the Amsterdam albatross is not well understood, although it is believed that the birds eat squid, crustaceans, and fish.

[11] Off-duty birds during the incubation stage of the breeding cycle cover large areas of the Indian Ocean, traveling up to 2,400 km (1,500 mi).

[11] The island on which the albatross breeds has undergone a significant decline in habitat condition due to the introduction of ship rats, feral cats and cattle,[13] while the birds are threatened at sea by the practice of longline fishing.

Albatrosses (family Diomedeidae) are highly sensitive to adverse population effects since they are very long-lived seabirds with low fecundity and delayed sexual maturity.

[12] Evidence suggests that the Amsterdam albatross population had been affected by long-line fisheries targeting southern bluefin tuna, between the mid-1960s and mid-1980s, while operations took place amidst the birds' feeding grounds.

[12][14] Based on bycatch rates for other albatross species, long-line fisheries have the potential to remove about 2–16 individuals (i.e. 5%) per year from the total Amsterdam population.

In 2007, researchers estimated the population had grown to 167 individuals; this increase in abundance coincided with global decreases in long-line fishing throughout the southern oceans.