Still giving birth at 74! You definitely don’t know the secrets of these birds

At the end of 2024, a black-backed albatross named "Wisdom" celebrated her 74th birthday. As early as 1956, Wisdom wore a leg ring from scientist Robbins (she may have been 5 years old at the time, just reaching sexual maturity, or she may be older), and this year she is at least 75 years old.

Albatross "wisdom", photo source: skynews

Last year, Wisdom and her partner gave birth to a child. In the past 20 years, Wisdom has laid more than a dozen eggs. Robbins, the scientist who recorded it, died at the age of 98 in 2017, but Wisdom is still alive at an advanced age.

About 172 million to 164 million years ago, some small, feathered theropod dinosaurs separated from other dinosaurs. They evolved shorter tails and the ability to fly, as well as well-developed keels on their chests, and eventually became today's birds. Every April Bird Lover's Week is also their day.

Today, let’s talk about some secrets of these birds that are both familiar and unfamiliar to us.

Interesting facts about the "Longevity Bird"

In addition to the albatross, which can still give birth to babies at the age of 74, some large macaws are also centenarians among birds.

The blue-winged macaw that British Prime Minister Winston Churchill once raised is a typical example (it also cursed Hitler, the culprit who started World War II). This parrot was named Charlie, and it is said that it lived until the 21st century (when it was over 100 years old), and even continued to insult Hitler and the German Nazis in her later years.

Having a chat with Churchill's parrot and - at 114-years-old - one of Reigate's oldest residents

Bird centenarians are often bred in captivity

Academics have found that some of the oldest birds are often kept in captivity. After all, birds in captivity are not frightened and are well cared for.

In the wild, elderly individuals are vulnerable to attacks by other natural enemies, which is naturally not conducive to the selection of "centenarians".

However, just as some big mammals such as the Asian elephant and the southern right whale have a long lifespan, some big birds also have a long lifespan.

This is a Mitchell's Cockatoo named "Cookie", which is certified by the Guinness Book of Records as the longest-lived cockatoo. Image source: https://lafeber.com/pet-birds/worlds-oldest-cockatoo-passes-away-celebrating-cookie/

Various large macaws and some cockatoos are examples of longevity. These birds can live up to fifty years or even longer. The albatross mentioned above and the Andean vulture in South America are also centenarians of around fifty years old.

The flightless kakapo parrot can live up to 60 years old. The largest ostrich can live up to 40 years old, and there are records of longevity of 50 years in captivity.

The many medium and large accipitridae that we are familiar with have a lifespan of a dozen to thirty years in the wild. There is no such thing as "living for seventy years and being reborn at the age of forty".

Andean vulture, photo from coravesbirdingtours.com

Kakapo, photo source: ebird

Some seabirds that migrate at sea often live for more than 30 years. Many small songbirds have a short lifespan. In comparison, the largest common raven among songbirds has a record of 23 years.

Based on bird banding records, a bald raven lived to be at least 22 and a half years old, while some small wading birds have been recorded living for over 30 years.

Bald-nosed crow, photographed at the National Museum of Zoology

Where are the Chinese cockatoos?

Since we mentioned cockatoos above, let’s talk about the cockatoos native to China.

Perhaps someone might question: Isn't the native place of cockatoos in Australia, New Guinea, Indonesia, etc.? How come there are also cockatoos in China?

This goes back to the pet trade in Hong Kong, where people kept cockatoos as pets, but they eventually escaped and became wild.

Hong Kong has a warm climate, and cockatoos have naturally adapted to it. They are not an invasive species like stray cats on desert islands or red-eared sliders in Chinese waters, but are naturalized species in the area, without causing any ecological damage.

Small sunflower-crested cockatoo, photo source: birdsoftheworld official website

They are in Hong Kong. Image source: https://avifauna.hkbws.org.hk/

There are many species of cockatoos. The one we see here in Hong Kong is the small sunflower-crested cockatoo, which is about 35 cm long. There are also populations of them escaping into the wild in Singapore. Their relative, the sunflower-crested cockatoo, can grow to about 55 cm. However, the two look very similar.

Currently, Sunflower-crested Cockatoos cannot be purchased or kept by individuals in mainland China, and there is no proposal to lift the ban in the "First Draft for Soliciting Opinions on the Scope of Special Labels for Nationally Protected Terrestrial Wildlife and Their Products".

Comparison between the Lesser Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (left) and the Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, source: Wikipedia

In their native habitat, including on Indonesia's Sulawesi and Sumba islands, the small sun-crested cockatoos could face harm from the pet trade.

On the way of trade, the Sunflower Crested Cockatoos may be directly packed into bottles and transported as cargo, and then they may die in the dirty and messy transportation environment before reaching the market.

They are bottled for trade. Image source: https://news.mongabay.com

The problem of habitat protection in Indonesia cannot be ignored. Currently, the IUCN has marked their threat level as critically endangered.

Singapore and Hong Kong, China, in foreign countries, have now become foreign refuges for the Sunflower-crested Cockatoos. However, the areas of these two places are not as large as their hometown after all, and it is not an ideal solution to want all the hopes of this parrot to be placed on overseas populations.

Where will these little sun-crested cockatoos that have "started businesses overseas" go? Can their homeland be revived and will they no longer be persecuted?

References:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/wisdom-worlds-oldest-wild-bird-expecting-age-67-180967718/

Myhrvold et al. (2015), An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyzes with birds, mammals, and reptiles

Glenda Kwek (August 31, 2011). "Sydney's old crock of a cockie was a legend at 120". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved June 7, 2013

Chen, R., Wang, M., Dong, L. et al. Earliest short-tailed bird from the Late Jurassic of China. Nature 638, 441–448 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08410-z

Foth, C.; Rauhut, OWM (2017). "Re-evaluation of the Haarlem Archaeopteryx and the radiation of maniraptoran theropod dinosaurs". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 17 (1): 236. doi:10.1186/s12862-017-1076-y. PMC 5712154. PMID 29197327.

Dunning Jr., John B. (ed.) (2008). CRC Handbook of Avian Body Masses, 2nd Edition. CRC Press. ISBN 978-1-4200-6444-5.

"Recovery within a population of the Critically Endangered citron-crested cockatoo Cacatua sulphurea cittinocristata in Indonesia after 10 years of international trade control"

https://www.hbw.com/species/northern-goshawk-accipiter-gentilis

British Trust for Ornithology; British Trust for Ornithology related records

Avibase official website

eBird official website

Author: Lv Zelong

Postgraduate students of Chinese Academy of Sciences

Member of Shanghai Science Writers Association

Editor: Gu Peiyao

Reviewer: Liu Ying, Li Peiyuan