How Long Can Birds Live?

A black-capped chickadee like the one featured here
is known to live over 11 years!

At The Raptor Center, we are often asked how long wild birds live.  One of the best (and most interesting) sources to find answers to that question is the Bird Banding Lab's website.  By banding a bird, the information on an individual such as location and age at time of banding provides the start of a hopefully rich data set of information about the bird, if it is encountered in the future. 

What is the oldest species on record?  A Laysan albatross, which as of earlier this year, was 63 years old.  How about red-tailed hawks?  The oldest known of this species is over 30 years of age!  Even black-capped chickadees can live over 10 years, and the oldest is over 11.