2025 Update!
Wisdom, a Laysan Albatross or Mōlī in Hawaiian, is the world’s oldest known banded wild bird who breeds on Kuaihelani, an ancient Hawaiian name for Midway Atoll and means “the backbone of the heavens”. Today, Midway Atoll is a National Wildlife Refuge and National Memorial to the Battle of Midway, within Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument.
Wisdom was an adult sitting on her nest when banded on December 10, 1956, by Chandler Robbins. Like many other seabirds, Laysan albatross do not reach sexual maturity until at least age 6 and may not breed successfully until ages 8 – 10. This means that of 2025, Wisdom is at least 74 years old!
What's the big deal about Wisdom?
The Man Who First Banded Wisdom: Chandler Robbins
Wildlife biologist Chandler Robbins first banded Wisdom in 1956 when she was a breeding adult. Banding thousands of albatrosses on Midway was part of a multi-year study designed to reduce impacts of wildlife and aircraft collisions. Robbins returned to Midway in 2002 (as a young 82-year old) hoping to find and re-band some of the old-timers; aluminum bands often fall off after about 20 years due to seawater corrosion. After finding the banded bird, 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 auxillary 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.”