[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Bird longevity records



Thanks for that good link, John.  Isn't it interesting that nine of the
documented longest living species are sea birds--away from human influence
probably.

Re: returning birds.  A few springs ago, I saw a truck hit a bird a couple
of miles from our house, and I stopped to get the corpse for Will Post at
the Charleston Museum of Natural History.  The bird was a catbird and was
not dead!  I brought it home and kept it in a large cage I had till it
seemed okay, which was about three weeks.  I knew it was ready to go when it
kept hopping at the north side of the cage, as if to be on his way migrating
again.  I opened the cage and the bird hung around for a few days, often
sitting on the handlebars of my bike under our raised house and letting me
approach quite close--I guess since I had been the food source for those
weeks.  Then he was gone.  We had never seen a catbird on our property
before and didn't see one again until the following spring when I saw one
sitting on the handlebars under the house again.  I got fairly close to him
also, so I have to feel it was the same bird.  The bikes are gone, but this
year there was a catbird at the bird bath very near that area, so I am
saying to myself that it could have been him again.

Every letter you sent reminds me of something.  When we were first building
our house out here in the boonies, 1986, I was very nervous about the whole
thing.  I decided to be there when the first shovel entered the ground for
the foundation footings just to be sure they did it where I wanted it.  Just
as the foreman pushed the shovel into the ground with his foot, a shadow
passed over the site.  I quickly glanced up and it was a bald eagle!!!  I
didn't worry anymore--no one could have a better omen than that I figured.

I checked this evening and all the feeders are empty except the safflower
which doesn't appear to have been touched.  However, the safflower I put on
a large stump is gone.  I'm betting raccoon, possum or deer.

Bruce Krucke
Yonges Island, SC
bkrucke@awod.com
http://www.toogoodoostudios.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Joshua Stuart Rose <jsr6@duke.edu>
To: BIRDERS <carolinabirds@duke.edu>
Date: Friday, March 29, 2002 8:49 AM
Subject: 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/