Dark chocolate brown covers its body and wings. A pale grey back and upperwings offset the darkness. This silver-grey mantle gives the bird its name. A bright yellow line runs behind the eye. It looks like an albatross that decided to dress for a formal evening event. The bill is black with a pale blue line along the lower mandible. The eye is dark, ringed in bright yellow. The bird is elegant, slender, and fast. It is also one of the least known of the albatrosses. Few people ever see it. That is part of the appeal. Feeding involves fish, squid, and krill. The bird often hunts near the edge of the pack ice. It follows fishing vessels for offal and discards. Unlike many albatrosses, it regularly plunges below the surface. It dives for prey. This behaviour sets it apart from its relatives. The flight is typical of the sooty albatrosses. It is faster and more agile than the great albatrosses. The wings are long and narrow. The bird banks steeply and twists through the wind. It is a joy to watch. But the ocean is vast. The bird is small within it. Breeding takes place on remote subantarctic islands. The nest is a pedestal of mud and vegetation, built on a cliff ledge. A single egg is laid. Both parents share incubation duties. The chick takes five months to fledge. This is one of the longest fledging periods of any albatross. The commitment is significant. The colonies are small and scattered. The birds do not breed in dense groups. They prefer isolation. A pair on a cliff ledge. Another pair a hundred metres away. They do not crowd. Space is valued. In New Zealand, these birds breed on Campbell Island, the Auckland Islands, and the Antipodes Islands. The populations are small. The birds are vulnerable. The population is declining globally. Bycatch is the main threat. Longline fisheries in the Southern Ocean catch thousands each year. The birds cannot breed fast enough to keep up with the loss. Climate change affects prey distribution and breeding success. Introduced predators on breeding islands add pressure. The name "phoebetria" means prophetess. The name "palpebrata" means eyelid, referring to the yellow eye ring. The bird does not prophesy. It just looks like it might. It is a ghost of the Southern Ocean. It lives at the edge of the ice. It appears out of the mist. It disappears into the same mist. The global population is estimated at 30,000 to 40,000 breeding pairs. The International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies the species as Near Threatened. The numbers are falling. It carries on. No one told it otherwise.