Laysan albatross Wisdom hatches an egg at 74 years old

The oldest banded bird in the world, a Laysan albatross known as Wisdom, welcomed a new chick late January. Wisdom, along with 70 percent of the Laysan albatross nesting population, nests at the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in Honolulu, Hawai’i. 

Finding Wisdom

Wisdom was an adult sitting on her nest when she was first banded by biologist Chandler Robbins in 1956. Because albatrosses don’t lay eggs until they’re about five years old, Wisdom is at least 74 years old today. “The next oldest bird we know about currently is just 52 years old,” Jon Plissner, supervisory wildlife biologist at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, told NPR.

When Robbins returned in 2002 to band albatrosses, he was delighted to find the bird he had banded over 40 years earlier. In 2006, USFWS biologist John Klavitter marked the same bird with a red band to make her easier to find and dubbed her “Wisdom.”

Since then, Robbins and other biologists have continued to keep tabs on her year after year. 

“Wisdom and I have been having a personal race in recent years to see which of us will return each year. Last winter, Wisdom disappeared at sea before her egg hatched, so I thought I was the winner, but she came back to Midway again this winter and successfully hatched her egg so we are still tied, me at 97 years and she at least 65,” Robbins said in a 2016 interview with EarthSky. Robbins passed away a year later in 2017. 

Super-mom

In 2011, Wisdom had a close brush with death when a massive tsunami hit the atoll, killing an estimated 212,000 chicks. Wisdom and her chick survived the storm, and in 2022 that same chick returned as an adult to Midway and raised its own chick.

Wisdom has likely “produced 50-60 eggs and as many as 30 chicks that fledged in her lifetime,” according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service. For more than a decade, Wisdom mated with her partner Akeakamai, but he hasn’t been seen on the island since 2021. 

After four years of not laying an egg, researchers observed Wisdom engaging in mating dances on the island last year. In early December 2024, Wisdom had chose a new mate and laid an egg. The chick successfully hatched on January 30, 2025.

Albatrosses only lay one egg at a time, and males and females take turns incubating the egg and raising the chick. For the next seven months or so, Wisdom and her mate will take turns caring for each other and the chick while it grows.