A bumper number of record-breaking geriatric birds has been identified, including a razorbill that was first ringed during the Swinging Sixties. The oldest individuals from 12 different species have been found, making it one of the best years on record for aged avians.

The razorbill had notched up 41 years, 11 months and 23 days when it was recorded last year, breaking the previous record by five years.

Among the other oldest birds identified in 2007 from rings fitted on their legs as chicks was a barn owl aged 13, beating the species record by five months, and a curlew at 31, almost two years older than the previous record. The normal lifespan is five years.

Paul Stancliffe, of the British Trust for Ornithology, said: “Some of these birds were way over the normal life expectancy and are quite incredible.”

The razorbill, officially known as M23170, was ringed in 1965 as a chick born on a cliff ledge on Bardsey Island, Gwynedd. It was found again last year when it returned to the island. The curlew was first recorded at the Point of Ayr in Clwyd and was found last year breeding at Alte Piccardie in northwest Germany. The barn owl was found dead in the Isle of Wight, a few miles from where it was ringed as a chick. Other species that were found to have reached a record age included a turnstone, 20, a black-headed gull and a Canada goose, both 27, and a lesser whitethroat aged 7.

Some, including the razorbill and the turnstone, were found where they were ringed but others were much further afield. A knot, aged 27, was ringed in the Highlands and recorded in the Netherlands.

“The razorbill looks pretty much exactly the same as it did as it did in its first year,” said Mr Stancliffe

“They replace their feathers every year so always have a new set. They don't suffer from wrinkles.”

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