Watch an albatross give its brand-new chick a very careful cleanup
As thousands of birds nest under the warm sun of Midway Atoll, some tend to their new chicks. In a video posted by Friends of Midway Atoll (FOMA), one of Mōlī’s (Laysan albatross) newest chicks receives a careful “beak preening” from its parent.
Mōlī Parent gently licks her chick
CREDIT: Friends of Midway Atoll.
According to FOMA, their beaks are essential survival tools, but can also be used with “precision and gentleness, applying only the pressure necessary to care for a fragile chick.” When a chick is first born, it will receive delicious regurgitated fish oil as one of its first meals. Chicks this young are fed a nutritious oily mixture of partially digested squid and fish eggs.
Each year, Laysan albatrosses return to this wildlife refuge on the northeastern tip of the Hawaiian archipelago and reunite with their companions. If all goes well, as with this pair, the females will lay an egg and stay on the atoll to nest.
To count the number of birds returning to the atoll, friendly volunteers carry out an annual census of the nests. The 2025/2026 census revealed:
- 28,246 Ka’upu (Black-footed Albatross) nests
- 589,623 nests of Mōlī (Laysan albatross)
- A total of 617,869 nests
Annual albatross census 2025/2026
CREDIT: Friends of Midway Atoll.
Breeding birds also include a record named Wisdom, an approximately 75-year-old albatross known as the world’s oldest breeding bird. Wisdom was spotted on the atoll in November 2025, but it remains unclear whether she laid another egg. She was first identified and ringed in 1956 and has since produced 50 to 60 eggs and up to 30 chicks have fledged in her lifetime. In 2024, Wisdom became the world’s oldest known wild bird to have successfully laid an egg at the estimated age of 74.
You can watch birds from the comfort of your home with the 24/7 livestream positioned on the island. However, the video won’t be as close-up as this special beak preening.
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