Oldest Known Wild Bird Nests Again

At 60 (or more), she's raised 30 or more chicks and flown 3 million miles in her lifetime. And she "looks great."

Comments

A Laysan albatross named Wisdom, is at least 60 years old and was spotted in February 2011 raising a chick at the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in the Pacific Islands. The bird has sported and worn out 5 bird bands since she was first banded by U.S. Geological Survey scientist Chandler Robbins in 1956 as she incubated an egg. Robbins estimated Wisdom to be at least 5 years old then since this is the earliest age at which these birds breed, though they more typically breed at 8 or 9 after an involved courtship lasting several years. This means, of course, that Wisdom is more likely to be in her early sixties.

Photo By: John Klavitter / USFWS

Wisdom, the oldest known U.S. wild bird, is nesting again – at age 60, or more.

The Laysan albatross was seen on Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge by a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service scientist. Based on the date of her first banding, in 1956 while she incubated eggs, it's estimated that she's in her early 60s. (Banding is the practice of affixing a unique metal anklet to birds so they can be identified in the future.) That makes her not only an extraordinary breeder, having raised at least 30 chicks and probably more, but the oldest known wild bird in North America. Since albatross mate for life, it could be that an unbanded male is equally as old and fecund. And, given that albatross migrate long distances from the northwestern Hawaiian Islands to as far as the Gulf of Alaska, it's likely Wisdom has flown as many as 3 million miles in her lifetime, enough to get her to the moon and back six times.

Oh, and "She looks great," in the words of Bruce Peterjohn, the chief of the North American Bird Banding Program at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel, Md. We couldn't agree more.

COMMENTS ()