---
title: "Wisdom’s son N333 is incubating an egg once more"
---

# Wisdom’s son N333 is incubating an egg once more

![N333 Midway U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Volunteer Catie Mahon](https://www.acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Albatrosses/L/Laysan/N333_Midway_U.S._Fish_and_Wildlife_Service_Volunteer_Catie_Mahon.jpg) *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](https://www.acap.aq/news/news-archive/24-2011-news-archive/941-tsunami-death-toll-for-laysan-and-black-footed-albatrosses-on-midway-atoll-increases-to-over-a-hundred-thousand-birds?highlight=WyJ0c3VuYW1pIiwidHN1bmFtaSdzIiwyMDExXQ==) 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](https://www.facebook.com/FriendsofMidwayNWR/videos/3373025329498584) by Dan Rapp on 12 December 2024,  [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uwdsjvqji0&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR0UTgNGT8zL1_MPj3laWgwNGc2IJ3f9UtKwCX8Hj34_mt0AgF8UH7Gpars_aem_B2tddOYU4MWuTsR9nGmJyQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uwdsjvqji0&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR0UTgNGT8zL1_MPj3laWgwNGc2IJ3f9UtKwCX8Hj34_mt0AgF8UH7Gpars_aem_B2tddOYU4MWuTsR9nGmJyQ)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.

 *![Owen Laysan chick first for 2025](https://www.acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Albatrosses/L/Laysan/Owen_Laysan_chick_first_for_2025.jpg)  
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](https://www.facebook.com/FriendsofMidwayNWR/) and [previous articles](https://www.acap.aq/search?q=N333&Search=&w1=before&d1=&w2=before&d2=) 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.