Our knowledge of birds' lifespans in the wild comes almost entirely from bird banding. Furthermore, animals in the wild lead very different lives from those in captivity and the insights gained from captive individuals may not always be relevant to those in the wild. In almost all cases, it is impossible to know when exactly an individual bird began or ended its life. There's the obvious problem that wild birds are difficult to keep track of. It is usually difficult to age wild birdsĪs the claims for the title of “world's oldest bird” demonstrate, accurately aging birds, even in captivity, is challenging. Some birds have almost certainly lived to be older than 83 (hence the upper range of the trivia answer), but for now, we do not yet have definitive confirmation of an avian centenarian. Also, as with fishing stories, bird fanciers sometimes exaggerate how long their birds live.Īccording to Guinness World Records, the oldest confirmed bird is “ Cookie,” a Pink, or Major Mitchell's, Cockatoo that lived to the age of 83 at the Brookfield Zoo near Chicago. These records depend on knowing when a bird hatched, a fact we usually do not have if the bird was born in the wild. Some birds may have even lived to be 120! If you Google “longest-lived bird,” you will find multiple claims of birds that lived for over 100 years. Photo by Brookfield Zoo/Flickr What we know (and don't know) about the oldest birds in the world The reality that birds don't show physical signs of aging creates a challenge for understanding how long they live: If we can't age adult birds, how can we study their lifespans?Ĭookie, a Pink Cockatoo, lived to the age of 83, making her the world's longest-living bird. How birds are able to accomplish this remarkable feat is not yet fully understood, but it probably has to do with how their bodies process oxygen and the proteins associated with metabolism. In fact, once most birds develop their adult plumage, they essentially become impossible to age. They don't get gray they don't become arthritic they don't get bigger with each passing year they don't leave growth rings for us to count. That huge gnarled tree in the park must have been there for decades.īirds are different. The neighbor's dog with flecks of gray fur and a stiff walk is obviously getting up in years. Photo by USFWS Birds don't age like we doĪs humans, we're accustomed to using visual hints to guess the age of someone or something. Wisdom, a 69-year-old female Laysan Albatross, currently holds the record as the oldest-known wild bird. In many cases, the seemingly simple question of how old is that bird can be impossible to answer.īy learning a few basic facts about how birds age, however, we can gain some interesting insights into bird lifespans and even begin to understand which of the familiar species around us are likely to be living longer (and shorter) lives. While it may win you trivia points, this answer may raise more questions than it resolves: Why is there such a range of lifespans? Which birds live the longest? Can some birds really live to be 100?Īnswering these questions proves to be surprisingly hard. How long do birds live? Whether you want to ace this question at your next bird-themed trivia challenge or just impress someone spontaneously, here's the answer: Birds can live between four and 100 years, depending on the species.
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