In sea mariner lore, an albatross is considered a good omen, and for almost seven decades, one bird has spread generations of blessings across the Pacific Ocean. 
 
 Wisdom, a 68-year-old Laysan albatross believed to be the world’s oldest known wild bird, has returned to her home at the Midway Atoll national wildlife refuge for yet another winter – and laid yet another egg to add to the already impressive brood that she has built up over an impressive lifetime. 
 
 Biologists with the US Fish and Wildlife Service think the almost-septuagenarian has birthed and raised as many as 36 chicks over the years. Should her latest egg with her longtime lover, Akeakamai, hatch, fledge and take to the open sea, it will be her 37th. 
 
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 Wisdom was first banded in 1956 by biologist Chandler Robbins, who estimated that she was about five years old at the time. The biologist and bird met again in 2002 when he went to band her and recognized that she had been one of the 8,400 birds he recorded during his first season, 46 years previously. 
 
 Albatrosses are known for their long life spans and often outlive their researchers – Robbins died in 2017 at the age 98 – but what makes Wisdom unique is that researchers have been able to monitor her habits for so long. She may or may not be the oldest wild bird, but she is the oldest known wild bird, and her habits have been lovingly documented by the fish and wildlife service over social media. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Oceanographer Dr Sylvia Earle, and Wisdom, the oldest known living Laysan albatross, at Midway Atoll national wildlife refuge. Photograph: Susan Middleton/USFWS - Pacific Region 
 
 And because so much of her background and history is known, researchers are learning more about her species by observing her. To a human, 68 years old may seem preposterous to still be laying eggs, but Wisdom and the other few documented examples of albatrosses in their 50s and 60s who do not appear to have trouble breeding at that age show the situation may be different for birds, said Beth Flint, a USFWS wildlife biologist. 
 
 Like many albatrosses, Wisdom returns nearly every year to the place she was born for nesting and mating. Midway Atoll, a two-and-a-half-sq-mile island belonging to the US that was the site of the decisive Battle of Midway during the second world war, remains mostly uninhabited when it comes to humans. But come winter, more than 1m Laysan albatrosses flock to the beaches to nest. 
 
 Albatrosses spend 90% of their lives at sea, soaring over the northern Pacific Ocean and feeding on squid and fish eggs. The fish and wildlife service estimates that Wisdom has clocked more than 6m miles in her travels – according to the Cornell lab of ornithology, Laysan albatrosses can range anywhere from the Aleutian Islands and the southern Bering Sea to Costa Rica. 
 
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 Albatrosses take mating and nesting seriously, forming bonds with their mates for life. The Cornell lab describes their courtship displays as elaborate; they include “coordinated movements in which the birds touch bills, spread one or both wings, bob their heads, place their bill under one wing, and pause with their bill pointed at the sky”. 
 
 Once they’ve met their mates, the birds will rendezvous at the same nest site every winter – and go through some iteration of the courtship process again, Flint said. 
 
 “There is preening and a dance,” she said. “They’re very tactile animals. They sit closely and preen each other and snuggle. We can’t know what they’re feeling, but they exhibit the kind of behaviors that reinforce a bond and a connection.” 
 
 Researchers first noted Wisdom’s relationship with Akeakamai in 2006 and are unsure if she had other mates before Akeakamai. But albatrosses are believers in co-parenting, and will take turns incubating an egg, caring for the chick and foraging for food over the ocean. Should this egg survive, Wisdom and Akeakamai will spend about seven months on Midway Atoll incubating and raising their chick. 
 
 Albatrosses lay only one egg a year, and because it’s such a lengthy and energy-consuming process to both incubate and raise a healthy chick, most do not do it annually. While researchers are still collecting data regarding the frequency at which Laysan albatrosses breed, Wisdom “does seem to be exceptional in that she has bred for a number of years consecutively and has not taken a break”, Flint said. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Wisdom, a 68-year-old Laysan albatross, protects her egg. Photograph: USFWS - Pacific Region 
 
 Wisdom has managed to raise a number of chicks who have gone on to raise chicks of their own, she has also faced hardship. In 2015, her egg was reported missing, which biologists say is just what happens sometimes. 
 
 But her fertile contributions to the continuation of her species make every homecoming a celebration for scientists. Last year, they observed a chick that she fledged in 2001 setting up a nest just a few feet away. It was the first time one of her chicks had been documented returning to nest. 
 
 “Midway Atoll’s habitat doesn’t just contain millions of birds, it contains countless generations and families of albatrosses,” Kelly Goodale, a fish and wildlife service refuge biologist, said in a blogpost. “If you can imagine when Wisdom returns home, she is likely surrounded by what were once her chicks and potentially their chicks.” ||||| No quit in this one. She's a new mother once again, seen above with her chick. 
 
 An albatross more than 60 years old the oldest known wild bird in the United States survived the tsunami that struck its Pacific Island home after the major earthquake in Japan. 
 
 The bird, a Laysan albatross called Wisdom by wildlife biologists, recently became a mother once again. Both the mother and her newly hatched chick were spotted alive about a week after the tsunami generated by Japan's 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck Sand Island, one of the islands that make up Midway Atoll, Reuters reported. [See the damage caused to Midway .] 
 
 The Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in the North Pacific Ocean is famous for its Laysan albatross population. Midway lies near the northwestern end of the Hawaiian Islands, about a third of the way between Honolulu and Tokyo. The atoll is an unincorporated territory of the United States. 
 
 Midway was struck by 5-foot (1.5-meter) waves after the quake struck. The tsunami killed an estimated 2,000 adult albatrosses and about 110,000 chicks in the wildlife refuge. 
 
 "It's a dangerous world out there, there's lots going on, so I would say she's very lucky," Barry Stieglitz, project leader for the Hawaiian and Pacific Islands National Wildlife Refuge Complex of the Fish and Wildlife Service, told Reuters. 
 
 Wisdom was first banded in 1956 as she incubated an egg, and she was estimated to be at least 5 years old then. U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials estimate that Wisdom has likely raised at least 30 to 35 chicks during her breeding life, though the number may well be higher because experienced parents tend to be better parents than younger breeders. 
 
 Laysan albatrosses (Phoebastria immutabilis) spend half the year at sea and return to land only to breed, according to the National Audubon Society. ||||| The world’s oldest known wild bird is a Laysan albatross named Wisdom. Since wildlife experts first banded her in 1956, Wisdom has raised as many as 35 chicks. And at the ripe old age of 68, she has laid yet another egg, according to Gizmodo’s Ryan F. Mandelbaum. 
 
 On November 29, Wisdom was spotted at the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, a haven for nesting seabirds on the northern end of the Hawaiian archipelago. More than three million birds, 1.2 million of which are albatross, come to the atoll every year to breed. “Every square foot of land, and much of the ground underfoot is occupied by a nesting bird,” Beth Flint, a biologist with the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said in a blog post. “It’s like another world.” 
 
 The USFWS has confirmed that Wisdom and her mate, Akeakamai, are looking after a new egg, taking turns between tending to the nest and searching for food. As is typical for the species, the couple has laid just one egg, and if all goes well, they will care for the hatchling for around five and a half months before it sets off on its own. 
 
 Wisdom and Akeakamai have been returning to Midway every year since 2006 to breed, which is somewhat unusual; according to the USFWS, albatross will often take a year off between breeding seasons to rest. Granted, Wisdom seems to be a pretty robust bird. Layson albatross are known to live several decades, with average life spans stretching from 12 to 40 years old, but Wisdom shows no signs of slowing down as she inches closer to 70. 
 
 Wisdom first came onto researchers’ radar in 1956, when a biologist named Chandler Robbins banded her during his first season studying albatross on the Midway Atoll. She was at least six years old at the time, which is why scientists believe Wisdom is now around 68, but there was nothing particularly remarkable about her back then. She was just one of hundreds of thousands of albatross breeding on Midway that year. 
 
 Forty-six years and one remarkable coincidence later, Robbins stumbled upon Wisdom once again amid a mass convergence of albatross on Midway, realizing that he had been the one who banded her many decades earlier. Robbins died last year, but biologists are continuing to keep a close eye on her and the other albatross that regularly flock to the atoll. The birds spend 90 percent of their lives in the air and at sea, making them difficult to track, but bird surveys and banding projects can help researchers gain a better understanding of albatross migratory patterns and life cycles. 
 
 “This information helps scientists make better management decisions that ensure seabirds have the habitat and resources they need in the future,” the USFWS writes in its blog post. 
 
 Managing Laysan albatross habitats has become increasingly important in recent years. The birds are classified as a “near threatened” species, with climate change and sea living rise posing a major threat to their future. Laysan albatross nest on low-lying islands, which “will likely be submerged by rising sea levels as a result of climate change in this century,” according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Laysan albatross are also vulnerable to predation by dogs, cats, mongoose and even invasive mice, which have been known to attack the birds while they nest. 
 
 “They haven’t really evolved with predators on land. Their only natural predators really are sharks, and those are in the ocean,” Aisha Rickli-Rahman, a biological program crew lead with the USFWS, explained earlier this year. “They have this very, very programmed behavior to stay on these eggs, because they have put all of their energy into this one egg.” 
 
 Because albatross are not prolific breeders, the success of each egg is important to the overall population. And so albatross like Wisdom, who has been raising chicks for decades, are vital to the health of the species. Last year, in fact, biologists observed a chick that Wisdom fledged in 2001 just a few feet away from her nest on Midway. 
 
 “Midway Atoll’s habitat doesn’t just contain millions of birds, it contains countless generations and families of albatrosses,” says Kelly Goodale, a USFWS refuge biologist. “If you can imagine when Wisdom returns home she is likely surrounded by what were once her chicks and potentially their chicks.”
– Wisdom the Laysan albatross is "at least" 63 years old, experts say, making her the oldest known wild bird on the planet. And, amazingly, she's still hatching chicks. Last week, a worker at the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge—Wisdom's home in the north Pacific—saw the mother caring for a new chick, according to a press release. And it's a feat she's managed for each of the past seven years, LiveScience notes. For comparison, most Laysan albatrosses live between 12 and 40 years, per the US Fish & Wildlife Service. Wisdom first came to the attention of researchers while incubating an egg ... in 1956. She was tagged then, and has likely raised no fewer than 30 chicks in her lifetime. Wisdom's "ability to continue to hatch chicks during the last half century is beyond impressive" given "the threats that albatross face at sea," says a biologist. Chief among those threats: tsunamis. Battered by five-foot waves in the wake of Japan's 2011 earthquake, some 2,000 adult albatrosses on Midway's islands were estimated to have died; Wisdom obviously survived. And she's racked up many such feats, says the refuge manager. Among them: She's "logged literally millions of miles over the Pacific Ocean in her lifetime to find enough fish eggs and squid to feed herself and multiple chicks." (We noted last year that the second-oldest albatross known to hatch a chick was 61.)