How To Determine The Age Of A Bird?

Identifying the age of a bird can be tricky. Several factors help you to determine the age of a bird. Like humans, birds also undergo several changes as they age. They should be cared for according to their age. This article could help you to figure out how old your bird is. We can know their age by observing the physical and mental changes of that bird.

Factors Determining A Bird’s Age

Many birds show changes in their appearance like fading the color of their feathers, feathers tend to get rough and behavior changes. If you notice changes in the birds physically and mentally, that means the bird is in its maturing stage. Some birds become irritating, while some tend to mellow out over time. This mainly depends upon the species of the bird.

Can We Find The Age With The Iris’s Color?

Usually, older birds are more prone to illness than younger ones. The old birds develop serious illnesses like heart disease, eye problems, liver disease, and other illnesses. Apart from this, several other factors help you to identify the age of the bird.

Beak’s color

Considering the color of the beak, we can identify the bird’s age. The bird’s beak will subtly change its color over time. It can be a little bit difficult to identify the transformation because it happens slowly. This can vary according to the type of bird. Different birds possess different beaks, so you should know the color of your bird at its young age. In the case of parrots, a lot of male parrots have orange beaks at a young age and change to yellow when they are older.

Feathers

You can find out whether the bird is young or old simply by checking its feathers. Many people identify the age of a bird by examining the overall condition of the feathers. If your bird is young, it may have smooth, vibrant, and shiny feathers on its body. But the weather condition can only help to find out whether the bird is young or old, not the exact age.

Eye of a bird

You can know the age of a bird by observing its eye condition. The iris color of a bird reveals how old and healthy the bird is. Same to humans, the birds-eye also starts with a dark-colored iris and gets lighter over time. Examining the eye of a bird can also help to identify whether the bird has been affected by any infection. The young bird will have bright, exposing, and charming eyes when compared to older birds. 

Activity level

It is a most important factor to identify the age of a bird because if you observe your bird’s activity level every day you can spot changes in your bird easily. Usually, young birds will be more active and interactive, if a bird does not do a lot of flying or their activity level decreases, it indicates that your bird is getting old. 

Legs and nails

The older bird has flaky leg skin, darker legs, and overgrown toenails. On the other hand, younger birds’ legs will be smooth and thin. Their nails will be small and smooth compared to the older ones. You can make sure that the bird is older by observing the overgrown, thick, and dark nails and legs. 

These factors can only help to find out if the bird is young or old. If you want to know an exact number just like humans, there are bird age calculators that will help. For example, if you want to calculate the age of a budgie in human years you need to know about its lifespan.

To convert budgies’ year into human age you have to divide the average lifespan of a human and a budgie. For example, take 76 as the average lifespan of a human, and then divide it by the average age of a budgie which is 9. Then take the real age of the budgie and multiply it by that answer. You can get the age of the bird.

The Bottom Line

You need to have a lot of experience in this field because it is difficult to tell the exact age of a bird. Usually, birds are active, colorful, and vibrant when they are at a young age. They may fade and change according to time.

Younger birds are usually more active and energetic, so it will be easy to identify the younger and older ones. But one thing you have to keep in mind is that the appearance and activity level may vary according to the species. If you are planning to own a bird, always prefer to buy a young bird.