Episode
She Was Banded in 1956. She's Still Coming Back.
Wisdom, a Laysan albatross banded at Midway Atoll in 1956, is the oldest known wild bird. How sure can we be?
Updated
Case Files · Episode 3 · 15:34. Long-form episode; the video player arrives at public launch.
What the episode is about
In December 1956 Chandler Robbins banded a Laysan albatross on Midway Atoll. In 2002 he found her again. Known as Wisdom, she is the oldest known wild bird, still returning to the same island in her seventies.
Key facts
- Wisdom was first banded in 1956; her bands have been replaced as they wore out.
- Miles flown (a 2011 estimate) and eggs laid are biologists' estimates.
- She laid an egg with a new partner in late 2024.
Further reading
- Dynamic soaring: Sachs, G. et al. (2012) "Flying at no mechanical energy cost", PLoS ONE (wandering albatross)
- Conservation status: IUCN Red List / BirdLife International, Laysan Albatross
Scenes are painted and dramatized from the sources below. Where accounts disagree, the episode says so.
More from Case Files
- The Bird That Flew 7,000 Miles Without Landing
- The Dog Who Walked 2,500 Miles Home
- This Dog Waited at a Train Station for Almost 10 Years
Sources
- Wisdom: banding 1956 by Chandler Robbins, age estimate, band replacements, naming 2006 (John Klavitter), mates Akeakamai and EX25, 2011 tsunami survival, Nov 2024 egg, Jan 2025 hatch, 2025 return: Wikipedia, "Wisdom (albatross)"
- U.S. Department of the Interior / USGS (2011): 2-3 million miles estimate
- USFWS (Dec 2022): ~50-60 eggs, as many as 30 chicks fledged, Akeakamai absent
- USFWS (Mar 2011): tsunami + two earlier storms, >110,000 chicks and >=2,000 adults lost
- ACAP (9 Jan 2026): no egg in the 2025-26 season
- Audubon (2021), the long life of Wisdom (rebanding history)
- National Geographic, "Wisdom, the world's oldest known breeding bird in the wild"
- Friends of Midway Atoll, "Wisdom the albatross" + "Wisdom Returns" (aluminium bands ~20 years, ~70% of Laysan albatrosses nest on Midway, Kuaihelani)
- EarthSky, Wisdom returns with her mate (Nov 2025) + 2002 rediscovery
- ACAP, "UPDATE: Wisdom is back, and so is her mate" (EX25, live cam)
- Smithsonian Magazine, Wisdom tending her new chick at 74 (2025)
- Laysan albatross biology (wingspan, diet, breeding age, incubation, chick rearing, courtship, salt glands): Cornell Lab, All About Birds
- Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge (location, history, refuge 1988, 2011 tsunami losses): U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
- Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument: NOAA
- Bird banding records: USGS Bird Banding Laboratory
- Chandler Robbins (1918-2017): Wikipedia
- Seabird bycatch measures: ACAP
- Coastlines: Natural Earth (public domain)
Scenes are painted and dramatized from published research; animal-sense views are illustrations, not measurements.