Not What You’d Call a Spring Chicken - Oceana USA
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March 10, 2011

Not What You’d Call a Spring Chicken

Here’s a story to make you smile: the oldest wild bird in the country is a new mom — again.

The United States Geological Survey and Fish and Wildlife Service announced on Tuesday that 60-year-old Wisdom, a Laysan albatross and the oldest known wild bird in the United States, is a new mother. Wisdom lives in the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in the Pacific northwest of the main Hawaiian island.

Albatrosses lay just one egg a year, and after a year in which they have successfully raised a chick, the birds may take a year off from breeding. Not Wisdom. She also nested in 2008, 2009 and 2010. Officials said she probably has raised 30 to 35 babies in her lifetime.

Wisdom’s longevity is a hopeful sign amid otherwise distressing trends for the seabirds. Nineteen of the 21 species of albatross are threatened with extinction, according to the IUCN. Major threats to the birds include plastic pollution in the ocean and capture in long-line fisheries. The birds ingest marine debris, mostly plastic, and feed it to their chicks, lessening their chance of survival.

Let’s hope more birds live as long as Wisdom. Help their chances: take our pledge to reduce your plastic use if you haven’t already.