World’s Oldest Known Wild Bird Just Gave Birth To Her 40th Chick

Perhaps this bird continually suffers from empty nest syndrome.

Wisdom is the world’s oldest known wild bird and she has enough life experience to earn her name three times over. Wisdom is an albatross that researchers have been tracking since 1956 at Hawaii’s Midway Atoll. The species is already known for living a long time, but at 65-years-old this one is breaking longevity records by almost a decade.

And while Wisdom is at a time in her life when most would begin to settle, Wisdom is still going strong. In November, Wisdom returned to the atoll to lay an egg that her and her mate have been incubating since. On February 1, researchers say tiny Kūkini finally broke through the shell.

Not bad for a bird that will soon be eligible to receive social security.

Wisdom may not be the oldest bird alive, but she is probably the most impressive. The oldest known bird alive lives in captivity.

She’s an 82-year-old cockatoo named Cookie living in the Chicago-area Brookfield Zoo.

While Cookie may have a leg up on Wisdom in years, Wisdom has clocked in many more miles living in the wild. The albatross has flown approximately 3 million miles or “six trips from the Earth to the Moon and back again,” noted Bruce Peterjohn, Chief of the National Bird Banding Laboratory.

Watch Wisdom Hatch her newest darling below:

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[Featured Image Credit: US Fish and Wildlife Services]

World’s Oldest Known Wild Bird Just Gave Birth To Her 40th Chick is an article from: LifeDaily