Wisdom the albatross is alive and still returning to Midway Atoll at roughly 75 years old, which makes her the oldest known wild bird. She skipped breeding in her most recent season, a result the US Fish and Wildlife Service confirmed in January 2026. Her previous chick died before fledging.
Is Wisdom Still Alive?
Yes. Wisdom was last publicly confirmed alive at Midway Atoll in November 2025, when she came ashore for the nesting season at an estimated 75 years of age.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service announced her arrival on 20 November 2025, and observers noted she had returned slightly earlier than in recent years. The male she had paired with the previous season, identified only by his leg band EX25, was sighted at the colony in the second half of November.
As of 30 October 2026, no death has been reported and no newer sighting has been published. That gap is not a warning sign. Laysan albatrosses spend most of the year at sea and can only be counted when they come ashore, so news about any individual bird arrives in bursts around the nesting season, much as coverage of Moo Deng clustered around a single stretch of attention. The first albatrosses of a new season reach Midway in the second half of October, and most of the colony follows in November.
Did Wisdom Lay an Egg in Her Last Season?
No. Wisdom returned to Midway in November 2025 and paired up again, but she laid no egg that season.
Refuge staff had expected one after her mate arrived, and she continued visiting the atoll in the weeks that followed. The Fish and Wildlife Service confirmed in January 2026 that no egg had been laid.
One point causes confusion in the coverage. Some reports call that cycle the 2026 nesting season and others call it the 2025 to 2026 season. They describe the same thing: the breeding season that began when the birds arrived in late 2025.
Why Would a 75-Year-Old Albatross Skip a Breeding Year?
Skipping a season is normal behaviour for the species rather than evidence of decline.
Raising a single albatross chick occupies most of a year and costs the parents an enormous amount of energy, which is why most Laysan albatrosses do not lay every season. The bird incubates one egg, then feeds the chick for months on food carried back from the open ocean.
Wisdom’s own record shows the pattern clearly. After a chick hatched on 1 February 2021, she went several seasons without an egg before laying again in late 2024. The gap drew attention at the time, and she then bred successfully enough to hatch a chick.
Her age does make every season less predictable, and no refuge statement has described her as unwell. On the available evidence, a skipped year says more about how albatrosses breed than about her health.
What Happened to Wisdom’s Last Chick?
Wisdom’s most recent chick hatched on 30 January 2025 and died later that year without ever fledging.
She laid the egg in late November 2024, her first in four years, and its hatching made her the oldest known wild bird to produce a chick. She returned to the nest on 6 February 2025 to take over feeding duties. The chick was still alive in May 2025, but Friends of Midway Atoll later confirmed it did not fledge, and it had died by late November 2025.
Chick losses are routine at Midway. Not every egg laid in the colony produces a bird that reaches the sea, and the outcome says nothing unusual about Wisdom herself.
What Happened to Akeakamai, Her Longtime Mate?
Akeakamai has not been recorded at Midway Atoll since 2021, and his fate has never been confirmed.
He was Wisdom’s partner from around 2006, and the pair raised chicks together for roughly 15 years. Their last chick together hatched on 1 February 2021. When Wisdom came ashore on 26 November 2021, he was not with her, and he has not appeared in any season since.
The refuge has never declared him dead. Albatrosses form long partnerships but not always lifelong ones, and a banded bird that stops returning is generally presumed lost at sea rather than confirmed as anything.
In late 2024, Wisdom was seen with a new male, the bird banded EX25. At least one observer had considered it highly unlikely that she would pair again at her age.
How Do Scientists Know Wisdom Is 75?
Her age comes from a numbered leg band fitted in 1956, which establishes a minimum age rather than an exact one.
Chandler Robbins, a scientist with the bird banding programme now run by the US Geological Survey, banded her at Midway in 1956 while she was incubating an egg. Laysan albatrosses do not normally breed before about five years old, so she was at least five at that point. That arithmetic puts her at a minimum of roughly 75 today, and she may be older.
Her band carries the code Z333 and has been replaced six times as it wore out. John Klavitter, a Fish and Wildlife Service biologist, gave her the name Wisdom in 2006 while fitting one of those replacements.
Robbins encountered her again in 2001, when she was at least 50, and he died in 2017, outlived by the bird he had banded 61 years earlier. The paper trail is why her age is treated as firm, unlike animals whose ages rest on recollection rather than records, a problem that has followed Jonathan the tortoise.
What Threatens Wisdom and the Midway Colony?
Invasive house mice that attack nesting adult albatrosses are the most direct threat on the island, and an official attempt to remove them did not succeed.
Researchers documented house mice preying on nesting adult Laysan albatrosses at Midway, biting into the backs of incubating birds. A study published in the Journal of Wildlife Diseases in 2021 linked the attacks to abandoned nests and to deaths from secondary bacterial infections. An albatross sitting on an egg does not leave it, which is what makes the birds vulnerable.
The Fish and Wildlife Service’s Midway Seabird Protection Project set out to eradicate the mice from Sand Island using bait distributed by helicopter. A project update dated 15 August 2023 reported that the team had halted further eradication work and moved into a mitigation and monitoring phase, because mice were still being found across much of the island.
At sea, plastic ingestion and fishing gear remain long-standing hazards for the species. Midway holds the world’s largest albatross colony, with hundreds of thousands of Laysan albatross nests counted each season, so Wisdom’s survival is one thread in a much larger population.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Old Is Wisdom the Albatross?
At least 75. Because she was already of breeding age when banded in 1956, that figure is a minimum and her true age could be higher.
Where Does Wisdom the Albatross Live?
She nests at Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, known in Hawaiian as Kuaihelani. She spends the rest of the year at sea in the North Pacific.
How Many Chicks Has Wisdom Raised?
Biologists estimate she has laid somewhere between 50 and 60 eggs and fledged as many as 30 chicks. These are estimates, not a complete count, and published figures vary.
What Species of Bird Is Wisdom?
She is a female Laysan albatross, a North Pacific seabird that breeds almost entirely in the Hawaiian Islands and lays a single egg per nesting attempt.
