Wisdom’s son N333 is incubating an egg once more

 
N333, son of Wisdom, broods its second known hatchling in February 2023, photograph by Catie Mahon, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Volunteer

Wisdom’s (the world’s oldest known Laysan Albatross Phoebastria immutabilis) first banded chick fledged from Sand Island, Midway Atoll in the 2010/11 season bearing colour band red N333.  As a chick it had survived the 11 March 2011 tsunami that inundated most of Midway’s Eastern Island, as well as parts of Sand Island.  The bird, thought to be a male due to its larger bill size, was regularly sighted near Wisdom’s nest site over 2018-2021.

It was first recorded breeding in the 2021/22 season with mate DH00 some 160 m away from Wisdom's usual nest site among bushes close to the shoreline.  Their chick was found dead in May 2022 at around four months of age.  The next season (2022/23) N333 was back at the same nest site on a pipping egg on 13 February 2023, which hatched the next day, and survived at least until May.  Information on the outcome of the 2022/23 chick and of the 2023/24 season is not currently available.

N333 is now incubating its 2024/25 egg at the same nest site, where it was videoed by Dan Rapp on 12 December 2024,  He is 14 years old and his egg is due to hatch any day - as is Wisdom’s own egg. The first recorded Laysan Albatross chick on Midway this season was seen on 20 January.

Midway’s first Laysan Albatross hatchling for 2025, photograph by Joe Owen, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Volunteer

Information from Friends of Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge and previous articles posted to ACAP Latest News.

John Cooper, Emeritus ACAP Information Officer, 03 February 2025

Note. The Emeritus ACAP Information Officer spent last week at sea in the Southern Ocean without access to Internet.  Postings to ACAP Latest News have resumed.