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 exclusively on Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge. She was already an adult when banded in 1956. 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 is at least 72 years old as of 2023!
For more information about Wisdom visit Wisdom’s official USFWS website here.
The Man Who Gave us 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 USFWS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, he struck gold – it had been 46 years since he and Wisdom first met on Midway!
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.”