Whether you want to ace this question at your next bird-themed trivia challenge or just impress someone spontaneously, here's the answer: Birds can live between four and 100 years, depending on the species.
Albatrosses, terns, penguins and some other seabirds seem to live 30-50 years, eagles 20-25 years, hawks 8-20 years. Most songbirds might live 8-12 years, hummingbirds 6-8 years, and warblers 3-6 years.
2 Blue and yellow macaw
Parrots are the only birds that can live longer than people, with a life expectancy of up to 100 years. The oldest blue and yellow macaw on record even lived to 104 in England.
Some corals can live for up to 5,000 years, making them the longest living animals on Earth. Scientific studies of elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata) in the Caribbean and off the coast of Florida show that coral genotypes can survive longer than expected.
The average life expectancy for a human is around 80 years. So one could say a cockatiel that is 10 years old is actually around 40 years old in "human years." It's true the cockatiel is middle-aged at that point.
Nocturnal birds, like owls and nighthawks, wake up as the sun sets and hunt at night. During the daytime, they find a safe place and close their eyes to block out the light. By contrast, most birds are diurnal, meaning they're awake during the day and asleep at night.
Where Do Birds Go at Night? Diurnal birds find safe, sheltered places to roost for the night. They often seek out dense foliage, cavities and niches in trees, or perch high in tree foliage, and other places where they are away from predators and protected from weather.
Expected Lifespan: three to four years
This shortest living animal, the ruby-throated hummingbird, is the shortest-lived bird on the planet. Birds generally have much longer lives than proportionally sized mammals, though larger bird species still possess a tendency to live longer than smaller ones.
Estimates of sponge longevity vary quite a bit, but are often in the thousands of years. One study in the journal Aging Research Reviews notes a deep-sea sponge from the species Monorhaphis chuni lived to be 11,000 years old. Yes, a sponge is an animal—and it has a remarkable life-span.
And since magpies can live between 25 and 30 years and are territorial, they can develop lifelong friendships with humans. This bond can extend to trusting certain people around their offspring.
A new study found a correlation between parrots' relative brain size and their average lifespan. The larger their brains, the longer they lived. Bigger brains make parrots more adaptable to their environment, allowing them to stay healthy and live longer.
Most garden birds only live for between 2 and 5 years, with many not even surviving their first year. Hatchlings and nestlings are particularly vulnerable to predators, lack of food, and poor weather.
Birds in captivity generally live longer than their wild counterparts because they are not subject to the same hazards and stresses of survival that wild birds face.
When bad weather hits, birds generally seek shelter from wind and rain in dense shrubs or thickets, next to heavy tree trunks, and on the downwind side of woods and forests. Cavity-nesting birds hunker down in nest boxes and natural cavities to ride out storms.
Can birds fly in the rain? They can—but not very well. While it's not impossible for birds to fly in the rain, they usually choose not to. You may see birds fly short distances in poor weather to find something to eat, but most of them prefer to stay put.
Just like people, birds shiver to stay warm. Birds have much higher metabolic rates and burn more energy to stay warm than we do. Black-capped chickadees weigh less than half an ounce and can maintain a body temperature of 100 degrees Fahrenheit - even when the air is 0 degrees!
Most bird care specialists agree that somewhere between 10 and 12 hours of nighttime sleep is appropriate for most birds, and that “cat naps” during the day are generally normal. Also, a bird's activity level may contribute to how much sleep it needs on any given night.
Many are also eaten by predators and all that remains is a small circle of feathers, quickly used by other animals as nesting material. Finally, nature disposes of corpses very quickly, with mammal scavengers, insects and their larvae, bacteria and fungi recycling them within a few days.
Disorientation. The day birds are more prone to disorientation because they remain active during the daytime or dawn, so the light confusion makes them chirp at night as well. The core reason for this disorientation is the light pollution which means there are more than the required lights.
Birds, depending on their species, may sleep standing up, lying down, floating on the water, and even upside down.
A parrot might respond to this by biting or trying to fly away, so a child that has lots of energy and not much self control over his or her movements or desires would not make a great pet bird owner. This is why we often recommend that generally, the child be 12 years old before getting their own pet bird.
Birds, just like humans, begin showing signs of aging around midlife, when their hormones typically change. For large birds such as Amazons, African greys, cockatoos and macaws, midlife is normally around 35 years of age or after as they have a life expectancy of well over 50 years.
A 2 year old bird will look the same as a 12 year old bird. In some very elderly birds, you will see age related issues like cataracts and poor feather and muscle condition.