Good afternoon everyone,

This week, I learned about Wisdom the albatross, who is over 70 years old and still going strong. Still having baby albatrosses! I think she's probably earned a rest at this point, but if you read the article it seems that the secret to her success is living in community and keeping things incredibly chill:

Scientists already know a lot about Wisdom. They know she was banded in 1956, as part of a long-term research project that has identified more than 260,000 individual albatross since the late 1930s. They know her favorite nesting spot. And they know she laid an egg late last November, like she has done at least eight out of the past 11 years, and that it hatched into a fluffy chick on February 1. But there’s still much about Wisdom and her species that scientists don’t know, starting with the obvious question: How long can she live? “We really have no idea,” says Plissner. “We also don’t know if she’s the exception. She’s probably just the oldest one we know about.”

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/worlds-oldest-bird-just-turned-70-why-so-special

Of course, as well as women birds it's great to honour women bird scientists as well. Here's Corina Newsome, in a good, long interview, talking about her "gateway bird," the blue jay:

At college, one of the courses that I had to take was ornithology: the study of birds. I was dreading it; I expected to fail. One of the first birds I learned about was the blue jay, a very brightly colored bird, full of different shades of blue and white and black. I was like, “Wait, this bird has been here the whole time?” I immediately fell in love with birds, in particular chasing and stalking birds. But I also fell in love with using them as a vehicle for education for people like me, who had no idea what to look for and what was out there. And now, I study birds in graduate school. So, my love of birds really was born in that class.

https://www.inverse.com/science/corina-newsome

Love,

Alex.