#even though i have done research already on blackbirds (turdus merula) for example

[pumpking64]

OKAY so

Disclaimer

Before I go into this, a little disclaimer. I am looking at this from a bird ringing point of view as that is my only experience with ageing birds accurately. I have, however, never actually held a raven (or any other closely related corvid, the closest being an Eurasian Jay) or seen it held, so my raven ageing specific knowledge is limited to what I have read on Wikipedia, which also is the sole source I am using here because I don’t need to be 100% sure of my information anyway. I will maybe check up on this later on though.

Kenku maturity?

To start off, there is a bit of varying information on kenkus out there in terms of maturity and lifespan. My friend, who sparked this research, told me that the age of maturity was 9 years, and only after researching ravens and blackbirds for already over 45 minutes did I encounter what most sources say, which is 12 years. Because of that I will continue to use 9 as the age of maturity. That ends up working nicely especially because the age of maturity then will end up somewhere between 9 and 12 so that’s neat. In this case, age of maturity is the age of fertility because that is what makes this entire research and comparison possible in the first place. The lifespan of a kenku is around 60 years. I have come to the conclusion that this must depend on the bird that the kenku individually resembles, but more on that later. I am looking at the common raven for a start here.

Stages in the life of a kenku

I don’t know how kenkus reproduce, but I like to imagine them actually laying eggs. Because that is cool. I will use the day of hatching as the equivalent to the day of birth in human society.

So the first “stage” in a kenku’s life would be in at home in a safe area, which I will call a nest for simplicity’s sake. After some time the kenku is able to leave the nest and take care of itself to a limited extent. It might yet not have fully grown feathers at this point. I will consider this part of stage one.

It will stay with it’s parents after this for some time, before being able to live entirely independently. This is stage two.

Then it will have some time where it can roam freely if it so wishes. It is, however, not adult yet, which is visible from the plumage. This stage is number 3.

Then the kenku will reach maturity and at this point the kenku will also look like any other adult kenku. That is stage 4.

Now, a bit of age difference might still be visible in the adult kenkus, mainly on beak, eyes and other parts of the body, that are not covered in feathers. The kenku will continue to moult it’s entire life. This part is divided in several stages, just like that of a human. But there are no significant factors here that divide the stages necessarily, so I won’t elaborate too much on it.

Life cycle of a raven

So how long are these stages? In general, kenkus are described as being the most similar to ravens. So let’s look at how the life cycle of a raven is in relation to these stages:

Age when fledging 35-42 days

Age when their juvenile plumage is complete I actually can’t find any research on this! I assume it is because a bird will usually have completed the juvenile plumage before fledging, but I am not sure. I have seen a fledged bird (Chaffinch) that hadn’t yet completed the plumage though (with basically no tail yet, and only a wing length of under 60 mm, which is a lot less than the common length somewhere in the 90′s, if I remember correctly). That leads me to adding a few days here, so let’s say that after 45 days, the plumage is complete.

Age when they usually leave their parents 6 months

Age when the plumage is adult 3 years

Age when they can reproduce 3 years for females, however most breed first time when they are 4 years old

Typical life span 10-15 years

Possible age in the wild Over 20 years

Oldest recorded individual 44 years

Note that I am not taking the average age as the most important age, as ravens (like all other birds, I think) have a huge mortality rate the first year / first couple of years. Also, I will be taking the oldest recorded age into account, because these birds will usually be captive birds. I think it would be fair to assume that a kenku’s life conditions are more comparable to that of a captive raven than a wild one, as kenku’s don’t really face the same problems as ravens, or at least not to the same extent.

Life cycle of a kenku

Now, what would this mean in kenku time? If a kenku reaches maturity at 9, and a raven at 3, then a kenku ages three times as slowly. This would mean that for a kenku:

Age when leaving the nest 105-126 days, about 4 months

Age when their juvenile plumage is complete 135 days, nearly 4½ months

Age when they usually leave their parents 1½ years

Age when the plumage is adult 9 years

Age of maturity 9 years, however most will not get children before they are 12 years old, which fits very nicely with the different information on maturity

Typical life span 30-45 years

Oldest life expectancy, from realistic to not-so-realistic 60-128 years, probably most realistic 60-80

To sum it up, a kenku’s life cycle would look something like this Babies and toddlers: 0 - 4½ months Children: 4½ months - 1½ years Older children and teenagers: 1½ - 9 years Young adults: 9 - 12 years Adults: 12 - 30 years Elderly: 30 - 60 years Old: 60+ years

Final comments

Now, and I want to make this clear because it’s a common misconception that I also had to be taught: when a bird leaves the nest it’s bones are fully grown. They are not smaller than an adult bird’s bones would be. Additionally, the first plumage (juvenile) of a bird is the same size (to a vast extent, few exceptions in some species) as the adult one is. An example of an exception is the common raven, which doesn’t have the elongated throat feathers even after the post-juvenile moult.

So if you saw a juvenile bird it would be indistinguishable from an adult one, based on size alone.

I’ve just spent literally an hour researching the stats on kenkus in D&D and the life cycle of ravens. And I’ve now come to some conclusions about the life cycle of a kenku.