Bird Lifespan: How Long Do Wild Birds Live?
Updated: Jan. 11, 2024
From those in captivity to the feathered friends at your feeders, learn how long birds live, and what factors affect their survival.
The birds in our gardens or local parks can feel like old friends after a while. It may seem as if we’re seeing the same individuals year after year—and that may be true because often they stay faithful to their home territory. But it can lead us to wonder: How long do birds live? That question can be surprisingly hard to answer.
How Long Do Birds Live in Captivity?
After a bird reaches its adult plumage, it’s impossible to tell how old it is just by looking at it. But some zoos and aviaries keep records of individual birds, which means we can track their ages.
One example: A pink cockatoo (a type of Australian parrot) arrived at the Brookfield Zoo near Chicago in 1934. When he died in 2016, he was at least 83 years old. It’s also been claimed that some other parrots, especially large ones like cockatoos and macaws, have reached over 100 years old. Some probably have, but it’s difficult to be sure without complete documentation.
Birds in good zoos, protected from predators and with access to veterinary care, may live longer than those in the wild. Aside from large parrots, some other zoo birds that have lived more than 60 years include flamingos and Andean condors.
How Long Do Birds Live in the Wild?
Most of what we know about life spans of wild birds comes from banding studies. A numbered band placed on a bird’s leg makes it possible to identify the bird. Currently, the oldest known wild bird is Wisdom, a banded Laysan albatross that returns every year to her nest on Midway Atoll in the North Pacific. Even though she’s more than 70 years old, she has continued to raise young in recent years.
Banding records tell us of other birds with long life spans in the wild. Sandhill cranes and bald eagles can live more than 35 years. Canada geese, Atlantic puffins and some large gulls might reach more than 30 years old. Mallards, great horned owls and mourning doves can live longer than 25 years.
For most small songbirds, the maximum known life spans are between eight and 15 years. But the average life spans for all these birds are shorter than the all-time records.
How long do hummingbirds live?
Does Bird Size Affect Lifespan?
As shown by these examples, bigger birds tend to live the longest. But there are exceptions. Birds like grouse and pheasants that live on the ground tend to have shorter life spans. Wild turkeys, weighing up to 20 pounds, seldom live much longer than 10 years, and the same is true for tiny hummingbirds.
Long-lived birds often reproduce very slowly. A pair of albatrosses or condors will raise no more than one chick every one or two years, so the adults have to live a long time to leave enough offspring to maintain their populations.
By contrast, many small songbirds raise two or three broods yearly, laying four or five eggs in every clutch. While the birds in our gardens and at our feeders may live only a few years, their descendants will keep us company for a long time in the future.
Find out what types of birds mate for life.
How to Help Birds Live Longer
The most dangerous time in the lives of many songbirds is just after they leave the nest. You can make a space for these vulnerable fledglings by planting dense low shrubs, avoiding using lawn chemicals and not allowing house cats to roam outdoors.
If you see a baby bird on the ground, it’s best to stay back and leave it alone; the parent birds are probably nearby.
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Originally Published: January 11, 2024
