The World's Oldest Known Seabird Is Expecting—Again

Wisdom is 60-something years old and has dozens of offspring
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Dec 9, 2016 7:08 PM CST
The World's Oldest Known Seabird Is Expecting—Again
Wisdom, the world's oldest known seabird seen here in 2011, is about to become a mom...again.   (AP Photo/US Geological Survey)

The world's oldest known seabird is expecting—again. Biologists spotted the Laysan albatross called Wisdom at Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge earlier this month after she returned to the island to nest, the AP reports. She was incubating an egg at the same nest she uses each year with her mate. She's believed to be 66 years old. She's also the world's oldest known breeding bird in the wild.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service's project leader for the refuge, Bob Peyton, said in a statement Friday that Wisdom has been returning to Midway for over six decades. An ornithologist first put an identification band on her in 1956. She's had a few dozen chicks. Midway is about 1,200 miles northwest of Honolulu. It's part of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument. (More albatross stories.)

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