Peter
You will find some interesting figures on longevity of birds on the
Australian Bird Study Association website.
It must be remembered, however, that longevity in birds is often merely a
matter of chance. While there are instances of birds living 15 or more
years and many of birds living 5-10 years, a paper I saw a few years ago
(I forget exactly where) suggested that the average bird had less than
twelve months to live) note that this is not a life span of twelve
months).
When you sit down and think about it there are numerous obstacles to be
faced by a bird. If you manage to survive the egg and nestling stage
(nest survival rates are often in the vicinity of 20%) you have to learn
foraging and other survival skills, find resources in an often hostile
environment (increasingly altered by humans activity), survive predators
that are facing much the same pressures and then, I suppose, hope you have
the best genes in the population.
Cheers
David
David Geering
Regent Honeyeater Recovery Coordinator
NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service
P.O. Box 2111
Dubbo NSW 2830
Ph: 02 6883 5335 or Freecall 1800 621 056
Fax: 02 6884 9382
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