The world’s oldest known wild bird has laid an egg at the impressive age of 74, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) for the Pacific Region reports.
Wisdom, a Laysan albatross, was filmed by the USFWS at the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, located in the Pacific Ocean, watching over the egg with her latest partner.
The USFWS posted the news on X, stating that Wisdom was with a new partner this year and that her previous partner, Akeakamai, hadn’t been seen for several years. While this species usually mates for life, since Wisdom has outlived at least three mates, she found another.
“SHE DID IT AGAIN! Wisdom, the world’s oldest known wild bird, is back with a new partner and just laid yet another egg,” the caption read. “At an approximate age of 74, the queen of seabirds returned to Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge last week and began interacting with a male.”
Members of the Laysan albatross usually have a lifespan of 12 to 40 years, but Wisdom has far surpassed that. She has raised at least 10 chicks since 2006 and as many as 40 in her lifetime, according to USFWS. Her last offspring hatched in 2021.
“Like other Laysan albatross, or mōlī in Hawaiian, Wisdom returns to the same nesting site each year to reunite with her mate and if able, lay one egg,” the USFWS wrote on X.
Wisdom was already banded when she arrived at Midway Atoll. Banding is an old technique used for studying and identifying individual birds. Wildlife biologist Chandler Robbins banded the Laysan albatross when she was already of breeding age in 1956, according to Friends of Midway Atoll.
Robbins was thrilled when he checked the bird-banding records at the USFWS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center and found Wisdom was at Midway Atoll. The refuge is home to about 3 million birds, including Laysan, who are black-footed and short-tailed albatross, as well as Laysan ducks.
Laysan albatrosses leave their breeding grounds from July to October to forage across the northern Pacific Ocean, often traveling northwest toward Japan and Alaska. By late fall, these birds return to their breeding grounds to reconnect with their partners.
