World’s Oldest Known Wild Bird Lays Egg at 74

Wisdom, a 74-year-old Laysan albatross, is the oldest-known wild bird on the planet. First fitted with a band in 1956, the Hawaiian seabird has laid her first egg in four years, according to United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) officials.

Wisdom returned to the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge to lay what could be her 60th egg, USFWS said, as reported by The Guardian.

“We are optimistic that the egg will hatch,” Jonathan Plissner, Midway Atoll’s supervisory wildlife biologist, said in a statement, as The Associated Press reported.

Wisdom, at left with red leg tag, stays close to her recently laid egg as her new mate settles down to incubate from their ground nest on Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge on Nov. 27, 2024. Dan Rapp / USFWS volunteer

Millions of seabirds come back to Midway Atoll each year to nest and rear their chicks.

Wisdom and lifelong mate Akeakamai had been returning to the Hawaiian atoll to lay and hatch their eggs since 2006. However, it has been several years since Akeakamai has been seen, and Wisdom started interacting with another male upon her return last week, officials said.

Laysan albatrosses lay one egg each year, and, according to Plissner, Wisdom has raised up to 30 chicks.

October and November represent mating season at the refuge. Albatross parents share the incubation of an egg for roughly seven months. They then fly thousands of miles over the ocean in search of food to bring back to their young.

Wisdom stands at right with red leg band, facing her new partner at Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge on Nov. 26, 2024. Dan Rapp / USFWS volunteer

About five or six months after they hatch, chicks fly out to sea, where they will spend most of their lives soaring above the ocean feeding on fish and their eggs, crustaceans and squid.

Adult Laysan albatrosses fly as much as 50,000 miles each year, so USFWS said Wisdom would by now have flown multiple trips to the moon and back, reported CNN.

“It’s really amazing to encounter the world’s oldest known wild bird and see her add to the record year after year, but it fascinates because of its apparent uniqueness and not for any scientific or conservation or management implications. It’s interesting that the next oldest bird here that we know about is currently just 45+ years old. Almost thirty years apart in age is a big gap, especially with the tremendous number of albatross that were banded here in the 1960s,” Plissner said, according to USFWS.

Laysan albatrosses typically live to be 68 years old, the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration has said.

As many as three million Laysan albatrosses travel to the Midway Atoll wildlife refuge to breed, Plissner told BBC Radio 4’s Today program. The atoll is not part of the state of Hawaii, but is an unincorporated U.S. territory. The largest albatross colony on Earth lives at the refuge.

“It’s really been remarkable,” Plissner said, as BBC News reported. “Wisdom seems to pique the interest of people across the world. We wait each year with bated breath for her return.”