There are several methods.
1) The lower the social security number, the older the bird, but this does not work on most migratory species;
2) You ask for its birth certificate, but they often fake these.
3) Go here and read this post on how to do it using Science.
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thanks
Wait.
Are you telling me that cutting them in half and counting the rings is not an option?
whoops...
Regarding dating methods by using SSN: The SSN is not assigned in order of birth. The pre-fixes are regional. There's a more complete explanation here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_number
I had a friend who claimed his grandma was so old her SSN was 000-00-0003, but that didn't sound right to me, so I checked it out. My grandparents were older, and their SSN's each stared with "47" like mine, so what he said didn't make sense.
What #3 said.
Both my kids have lower numbers than my husband & I.
Thanks for the link Greg. You might be interested in aging a bird using a completely different method. That last one used the eye but this one: http://tcnaturalist.blogspot.com/2009/05/how-olds-that-thrasher.html uses a band in the tail of a brown thrasher. There is actually a really cool way to age chickadees by looking at their tail. I'll have to get some photos up on that.
~Kirk
There are many more methods than these, most involving assessing the molt. Some birds can be aged to 3 or more years using molt limits.