May 2025 on Kuaihelani (Midway Atoll)
BREAKING NEWS UPDATE: As of May 20, 2025 Wisdom's Chick was been noted as looking spry and although under weight is still holding its own!!!! Photos are coming soon!
Wisdom, a 74+ year old Laysan albatross, which makes her the world's oldest known banded bird in the wild, has a banded chick and a known grand chick this year! We are sure she has more grand kids and great grand kids. However, it is happenstance when humans are able to locate her banded kin in the seemingly never ending sea of albatross chicks on Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge/Battle of Midway National Memorial.
April 2025 photos by the Wisdom ‘ohana photographer, Dan Rapp
Wisdom's chick is somewhat of a late bloomer this year with its hatching date being towards the end of the season. Currently, Midway Atoll is blanketed in albatross chicks sitting alone waiting for days on end for a parent to show up with food. Each parent must expend extra energy searching the surface of the high seas in order to feed themselves and bring back enough squid and floating masses of fish eggs for them to feed to their growing chick. This is the time of year when chicks seem to slowly loose or gain weight. Therefore, we are beyond hoping the best for this chick, which would make it Wisdom's youngest of approximately 35 chicks she has reared.
Wisdom's Grand Chick April 2025!
Wisdom's grand chick appears to be doing well and was totally ‘working it' during its photo shoot by the family's personal photographer Dan Rapp. Wisdom's grand chick is living the life protected in a very elevated dune line created by naupaka bushes.
Article written by Ann Bell