It has a circumpolar distribution, nesting on isolated islands in the Southern Ocean and feeding at high latitudes, further south than any of the other mollymawks.

Finally, they produce a stomach oil made up of wax esters and triglycerides that is stored in the proventriculus.

[3] They also have a salt gland situated above the nasal passage that helps desalinate their bodies, to compensate for the ocean water they imbibe.

Its bill is black, with bright yellow upper and lower ridges, that shades to pink-orange at the tip.

[11] At sea the grey-headed albatross is highly pelagic, more so than other mollymawks, feeding in the open oceans rather than over the continental shelves.

They feed predominantly on squid, taking also some fish, crustacea, carrion, cephalopods, and lampreys.

A single egg is laid in a large nest, typically built on steep slopes or cliffs with tussock grass,[7] and incubated for 72 days.

The IUCN classifies this bird as endangered due to rapidly declining numbers in South Georgia which holds around half the world's population.

[7] Illegal or unregulated fishing in the Indian Ocean for the Patagonian toothfish, Dissostichus eleginoides resulted in 10–20,000 dead albatrosses, mainly this species, in 1997 and 1998.