The oldest known wild bird is estimated to be about 75. Researchers say she has raised roughly 30 chicks over her lifetime.
Wisdom, considered the oldest known wild bird, has been seen again on Midway Atoll in the Pacific. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that she is about 75. She returned to her traditional nesting site in November 2025 and continued appearing there through the following season. Her exact age is unknown.
Ornithologist Chandler Robbins banded Wisdom in December 1956, after she had already laid an egg. Because Laysan albatrosses are not known to breed before age five, that established a minimum age. Over her lifetime, she is estimated to have laid 50 to 60 eggs, with about 30 chicks surviving to fledging. She laid another egg in the 2024–25 season, and a chick hatched in early 2025. She returned the next season but did not lay another egg. That alone does not mean she has stopped breeding.
Midway recorded 589,623 Laysan albatross nests in the 2025–26 season. Banding allows researchers to track individual birds’ age, survival and reproduction over decades.