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Wisdom, the oldest living wild bird.

Image credit: USFWS/Dragana Connaughton/Schoolyard Films via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

How Long Do Wild Birds Live?

Thankfully there’s no owlgebra in calculating a bird’s age.

Holly Large
APR 20, 2024
Jr Copy Editor & Staff Writer

It’s pretty clear when we humans are aging; gray hair, wrinkles, mysterious creaking noises
when getting out of bed in the morning. Those signs make it a lot easier to guess roughly
how old we are, but when it comes to wild birds, they lack such obvious clues. So how long do
wild birds actually live for?

Techniques such as bird ringing or banding, though not a flawlessly accurate system, have
helped scientists along the way in figuring out the answer to that question.
Backyard birds
Many of our favorite backyard visitors also happen to have some of the shortest lifespans
when it comes to wild birds. A staple of British gardens and Christmas cards alike, the robin,
for example, typically only lives for about 2 years. Across the pond, it’s the same story for the
black-capped chickadee – though the oldest ever recorded is thought to have lived for over
11.5 years.

Bald eagles
The bald eagle might be best known as an American icon – though Benjamin Franklin
apparently wasn’t a fan – but arguably that’s not the most impressive thing about it. On top
of having a wingspan longer than most adult men are tall, bald eagles living in the wild
typically have a lifespan anywhere between 20 to 30 years.

Up to 30 years is quite the achievement, but that’s only an average; the oldest known wild
bald eagle lived to an even more impressive 37 years old.

The reigning champ

But what about the oldest living wild bird? That title goes to a Laysan albatross known as
Wisdom. This species can live for more than 50 years, which is certainly nothing to be sniffed
at, but Wisdom appears to have taken a look at the number and said, “Bet.”

Believed to have hatched in 1951, Wisdom is now a whopping 74 years old. In that time, she’s
believed to have mothered somewhere between 30 to 36 chicks, even hatching one at the
tender age of 70.

Unfortunately, living to such a mighty age also comes with an increased risk of outliving
your mate. Albatrosses normally mate for life, but it’s now been three years since her partner
Akeakamai – Hawaiian for "lover of wisdom" – has been spotted at their nesting site, with
many suspecting that he had died.

It’s not all bad news though, as she was recently spotted getting back in the game.

Why do wild birds live so long?

Wild birds live for a surprisingly long time. Great for them, but it doesn’t make much sense
when you take a look at the rest of the animal world. Bigger body size equaling longer
lifespan isn’t exactly an unbreakable rule, but it does stand true the vast majority of the time
– but many birds live two to three times longer than mammals the same size as them.

Many birds also have super-fast metabolisms, which is also normally attributed to faster
aging in animals because of the damage it causes to cells. Some research suggests that
birds are able to live longer than expected under these conditions because they could have
mechanisms that mitigate such damage.

Others propose that their longevity comes down to their ability to fly. “They’ve had to be so
highly engineered to succeed at flight,” Steven Austad, a biologist who studies aging, told
Audubon magazine. “That kind of physiological integrity has allowed them to stay healthy
much longer than another animal.”

However they manage to do so, living so long against the odds is an impressive feat – and
one that might provide some clues to our own aging process, too.

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