• Question: what age can birds live up to

    Asked by to Helen on 17 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Helen Gath

      Helen Gath answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      Hi there! I hope you’re enjoying the questions and answers as much as I am 🙂

      How long a birds can potentially depends on what type of bird (or SPECIES) it is and its lifestyle. People may talk about the average life time of a species, which means the age that the majority of birds will live to, give or take a few years. We may also talk about the greatest life span, because there can be rare occasions where a bird lives an unusual length of time. People in the UK for example, are expected on average to live to 80 years old, but you still get some people who live to over 100years old. This however, is not very common.
      Very small song birds, like the Robins in your garden, are generally quite short lived – perhaps juts 1-2- years. They mature quickly and start breeding straight away. They put a lot of energy into laying as many eggs per year and rearing lots of chicks. Other species, like the Albatross are huge birds that can live for almost 50 years. These larger birds can take several years to mature and start laying their own eggs. They focus more of their energy into keeping themselves alive – such large birds need a lot more food, which means they spend more time looking for food than a Robin would. An albatross will only lay one egg per year, unlike the Robin who lays many eggs.

      Another important thing to consider is whether the bird is wild or captive. Wild birds have to fight, much more for their survival, looking for food, avoiding predators, enduring harsh weather…..Captive birds are kept in protected areas free of predators, they are provided food regularly, even given medicine if they get sick.

      I think the oldest record of a wild bird’s ages was an Laysan albatross near Hawaii – it was 63 years old AND it still laid and egg and successfully reared a chick!

      With the echo parakeets I am studying, we think the oldest bird may be 30 years old! But we’re not sure what the average age they live to is because people have not been closely studying the species for very long. Hopefully we will find out through my research.

      Hope this helps 🙂

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