Wisdom the albatross is 74 years old. She’s found a new partner and just laid another egg

The world’s oldest known wild bird has sparked “special joy” among scientists after she laid an egg – her first in four years – at the age of 74.

The world’s oldest known wild bird has sparked “special joy” among scientists after she laid an egg – her first in four years – at the age of 74. Wisdom, a Laysan albatross, was spotted with the egg and a new partner last week at Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, an island sanctuary located on the far northern end of the Hawaiian archipelago. “She did it again!” the US Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) for the Pacific Region exclaimed on social media platform X. Jon Plissner, supervisory wildlife biologist at wildlife refuge, said he and his team were “optimistic that the egg will hatch,” that that Wisdom would be fit enough to raise another chick. “A special joy,” he called Wisdom’s achievement. A video posted on USFWS’ Facebook page showed Wisdom rubbing her head against her new partner before he sat down to incubate the egg. Biologists spotted Wisdom at Midway Atoll in 2001 with a red band around her leg that they later discovered was placed there by the late renowned ornithologist Chandler Robbins in 1956.