Meet Wisdom!
The oldest known banded bird in the wild
Wisdom, a Laysan albatross commonly called Mōlī in Hawaiian, is the world’s oldest known banded bird in the wild and breeds on Midway Atoll, known by native Hawaiians as Kuaihelani (backbone of heaven). Midway Atoll is a National Wildlife Refuge and National Memorial to the Battle of Midway.
She was already an adult when banded in 1956 by Chandler Robbins. Like many other seabirds, Laysan albatrosses delay sexual maturity until at least age 5 and may not breed successfully until ages 8 – 10. This means Wisdom will be at least 74 years old by end of December 2024!
The Man Who Found Wisdom: Chandler Robbins
Wildlife biologist Chandler Robbins first banded Wisdom when she was a breeding adult in 1956. Banding thousands of albatrosses on Midway was part of a multi-year study designed to reduce impacts of wildlife and aircraft collisions. Robbins returned in 2002 (as a young 82-year old) hoping to find and re-band some of the old-timers; the old aluminum bands often fell off after about 20 years due to seawater corrosion. When he checked the bird-banding records at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, he was thrilled after tracing the banding numbers and immediately tried to communicate with Midway – it had been 46 years since he and Wisdom first met!
Robbins and other biologists have recaptured Wisdom multiple times. In 2006, USFWS biologist John Klavitter asked Robbins where to look for this grande dame. Refuge volunteers found her right where Robbins described – near the old Navy BOQ-B barracks. Klavitter gave Wisdom a red band to make her easier to find and dubbed her “Wisdom.”
In a 2016 interview with EarthSky, Robbins said, “I was really excited when I caught her in 2002 and found she was still alive and nesting. 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.”