Source checked 12 November 2026. PawLine editorial team. Not professionally reviewed.
Research-reading information, not veterinary advice or an individual prognosis. No countdown or remaining-years estimate. A present health concern needs an appropriate avian professional; do not wait for a worksheet or an app reply.
Maximum describes an observed extreme
In the historical study, the maximum is the highest lifespan recorded for a species within that dataset. It is sensitive to which birds were recorded. The page does not turn a record into a species-wide target or imply that every individual has the same biological ceiling.
Median is a middle, not a deadline
Young and colleagues used medians because the recorded lifespan distribution was skewed. A median summarizes the middle of a defined set of observations. It does not split the remaining future of an individual bird into a simple countdown, and it is not interchangeable with the largest recorded age.
Life expectancy depends on the method
The 2022 study estimated life expectancy using zoo records and a statistical model that addressed uncertainty. That is a different operation from selecting the oldest animal in a list. Read the study's methods before treating its estimate as comparable with a historical table or a popular species profile.
An unlabeled figure stays unresolved
If a website says only that a parrot lives a certain number of years, write down what is missing: species, statistic, population or source. Do not fill the gaps with assumptions. The source card can preserve that uncertainty without endorsing, averaging or ranking the claims.
Sources and limits
Young et al.: Survival on the ark, Animal Conservation (2012)
Smeele et al.: Coevolution of relative brain size and life expectancy in parrots (2022)