This is Bird Note.

This month, we're celebrating Bird Note's 20th anniversary.

20 years is a long time, but we can't hold a candle to wisdom the albatross,

the world's oldest known wild bird who is at least 74 years old.

Back in 1956, pioneering bird biologist Chandler Robbins was fastening ID bands to the legs of

LaSan albatrosses. His work took place on tiny Midway Atoll, way out in the Pacific Ocean,

where roughly one million albatrosses nest each year. Little did Chandler suspect that

46 years later, he would encounter one of those same females he'd banded previously. In honor of her unprecedented history, another researcher named this long-lived albatross,

Wisdom.

Since then, scientists have been checking in on Wisdom.

Over those many decades, Wisdom has raised an estimated 30 or so chicks,

and just this past November, she laid her first egg in four years.

It's not known with certainty how many years an albatross might live.

One thing we do know for certain, Wisdom has fans all over the world,

rooting for her to return to Midway this fall.

Here's to many more years, for Bird Note and for Wisdom. I'm Ariana Rimmel.