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Bird longevity records



On Thu, 28 Mar 2002, Bev Hudson wrote:
>
> Yesterday our Brn. Thrasher returned and went right to the suet feeder!
> This is the 3rd year in a row - I don't know how long birds live (if
> they aren't killed somehow)

This question's pretty easy to answer. The federal government's Bird
Banding Laboratory, now part of the US Geological Survey, keeps track of
recaptures of banded birds, and posts the longest-lived ones on a web
page:
http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/bbl/homepage/longvrec.htm

Brown Thrasher is actually one of the longest-lived passerines, with one
recorded at 12 years and 10 months. Alas, House Sparrow is even longer, 13
years and 4 months; one Gray Catbird clocks in at 17 years and 11 months!
And believe it or not, even a couple of the warblers survive past their
10th or even 11th birthday... Oldest passerine on record looks to be a
Common Grackle, at 20 years and 11 months; older than a couple of people
on this listserv, I think! Wait, scratch that; here's a Chihuahuan Raven
that made it to 21 years and 7 months, old enough to legally drink.
Brown-Headed Cowbird, a species of much conversation on C-birds today,
makes 16 years and 10 months. The record for Ruby-throated Hummingbird is
9 years and 1 month, but one Broad-tailed was the oldest overall hummer at
12 years and 2 months. And how about this: a Mourning Dove recaptured at
the age of 31 years and 4 months! I think that's the oldest non-seabird in
the database. Oldest overall is, of course, an albatross, specifically a
Laysan, at 42 years and 5 months (which as albatrosses go is only middle-
aged...)

Good birding,

Josh


Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Biology (Zoology, R.I.P.)

jsr6@duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/