The Laysan albatross's plumage has been compared to that of a gull, two-toned with a dark gray mantle and wings and a white underside and head.

[4] The Laysan albatross is normally a silent bird, but on occasion may be observed emitting long "moo"-ing sounds, descending whinnies, or rattles.

Wisdom was banded by a U.S. Geological Survey researcher in 1956, and in December 1956, she was seen rearing a new chick on Midway Atoll.

Incubation takes about 65 days, and is followed by several weeks of brooding, after which both parents are out at sea to provide for the growing chick.

The chicks are fed regurgitated meals of very rich "stomach oil" and partially digested squid and fish by the parents.

[19][20] The longest lifespan confirmed for a wild seabird was for a breeding male found to have been banded 53 years previously.

The Laysan albatross, while a common species, has not yet recovered from the wide-scale hunting of the early 1900s,[4] with feather hunters killing many hundreds of thousands and wiping them out from Wake Island and Johnston Atoll.

[30] In October 2009, an estimated 10,000 Laysan albatrosses nesting on Midway Atoll, part of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, were killed each year from lead poisoning.

[citation needed] "Laysan chicks raised in nests close to 90 buildings left behind by the Navy are ingesting lead-based paint chips.

"Federal funds are urgently needed to clean up this toxic mess to protect the Laysan albatross, as well as future visitors to the new Marine National Monument.

Many Laysan chicks that nest within 5 m of building structures exhibit a condition referred to as "droop wing", which commonly manifests itself in the chicks’ inability to raise their wings, which then drag on the ground, resulting in broken bones, infestations of maggots, and open sores.

These chicks have blood lead concentrations that cause immunological, neurological, and renal impairments, significantly decreasing their chances of survival.

The Department of the Interior (DOI) estimated that $22.9 million was needed to clean up the toxic lead paint on Midway Atoll.

When American Bird Conservancy staff presented the severity of this growing threat to an already imperiled bird species to DOI officials, they were told that the new Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument did not have any federal funds dedicated to its operation.

Moreover, the DOI officials stated that the current federal budget for the nation's wildlife refuge system would be insufficient to prevent the continued ingestion of lead paint by Laysan chicks.

[31] By September of that year, the Fish and Wildlife Service made plans to spend $1.4 million on cleaning the lead paint at the Midway Atoll military buildings, with plans to spend more than $21 million overall to removed paint chips from the soil and clean 71 buildings in total; the American Bird Conservancy reported that the clean-up would begin by July 2011.

[33][34] In 2011, the Fish and Wildlife Service announced its plans to begin the clean up of lead-based paint at federal facilities.

In August 2018, Midway Atoll was declared lead-free after a long campaign of remediating the buildings and soils.