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And the fact that she's hatching new chicks six decades after her own birth is only one of the noteworthy achievements of this Laysan albatross, the oldest known wild bird in the United States.
"She looks great," said Bruce Peterjohn, chief of the North American Bird Banding Program at the United States Geological Survey's Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel, Md. "To know that she can still successfully raise young at age 60-plus, that is beyond words."
John Klavitter, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
A Laysan albatross named Wisdom, who is at least 60 years old, was spotted in February raising a chick at the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in the Pacific.
She has worn and worn out five bird bands since then. She was most recently spotted by a biologist from the Fish and Wildlife Service a few weeks ago at the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in the Pacific, where she was feeding her newest chick with the typical baby albatross meal of regurgitated fish eggs and squid oil.
Since albatross don't breed until they are at least 5 years old, Chandler Robbins -- Wisdom's first human associate -- figured that was her lowest possible age in 1956. But she could have been older since albatross courtships can last several years before the couple produces an egg.
Adult albatross mate for life, and both avian parents usually raise their young, so the appearance of Wisdom's latest chick raises the prospect that her original partner may still be around as well.
And since female albatross lay only one egg a year but take about that much time to incubate and raise their young, Peterjohn estimated that Wisdom has likely raised as many as 30 to 35 chicks.
He noted that the the U.S.-Canadian bird banding program, tracking Wisdom and more than 64 million other wild birds since 1920, has provided a trove of information and understanding about albatross and other species. Wisdom is the oldest wild bird documented in the program.
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Albatross fly thousands of miles across the world's oceans, often riding wind currents without ever flapping their 6-foot wings. When it isn't breeding season, they don't touch land at all and are believed to sleep while aloft.The USGS estimated that Wisdom has flown about 50,000 miles a year as an adult, or up to 3 million miles since she was first banded.
John Klavitter, the biologist who spotted Wisdom on Midway last month, said she had returned to the atoll in 2006, 2008, 2009 and 2010.
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