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As thousands of birds<\/a> nest in the warm sun of Midway Atoll, some tend to their new chicks. In a video posted by Friends of Midway Atoll (FOMA), one of the newest M\u014dl\u012b (Laysan albatross) chicks gets a careful \u201cbeak preen\u201d from its parent.<\/p>\n According to FOMA<\/a>, their beaks are essential survival tools, but can also be used with \u201cprecision and gentleness, applying only the pressure needed to tend to a fragile chick.\u201d When first born, a chick will receive some yummy regurgitated fish oil as one of its earliest meals. Chicks this young are fed a nutritious oily mix of partially digested squid and fish eggs.<\/p>\n Every year, Laysan albatross return to this wildlife refuge on the northeastern edge of the Hawaiian Archipelago<\/a> and reunite with their mates. If all goes well\u2014as it has for this pair\u2014the female birds will lay one egg and stay on the atoll to nest.<\/p>\n To count how many birds are coming back to the atoll, hearty volunteers conduct an annual nest census. The 2025\/2026 census<\/a> found:<\/p>\n 28,246 Ka\u2019upu (Black-footed albatross) nests<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n 589,623 M\u014dl\u012b (Laysan albatross) nests<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n The nesting birds also include a record-breaker named Wisdom, a roughly 75-year-old albatross known as the world\u2019s oldest breeding bird. Wisdom was spotted on the atoll in November 2025, but it is still unclear if she has laid another egg. She was first identified and banded in 1956<\/a> and has since produced 50 to 60 eggs <\/a>and as many as 30 chicks have fledged in her lifetime. In 2024, Wisdom became the world\u2019s oldest known wild bird to successfully lay an egg at the estimated age of 74.<\/p>\n\n
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