I had a male parrotlet die when he was somewhere between 12 and 15. I had to remove his band because of leg irritation and I could barely make out the date on it. He was not especially well cared for before me, but I had him for about 8 or 9 years. I had a blue male die of cancer when he was about 6 or 7. The mates of both birds are still alive. One female I got as a 6 month old hand-fed and she is now about 12 years old and just starting to get that older bird look to her. Some changes are her beak is just a little longer and flakier, she is getting yellow feathers on her neck almost like a yellow naped amazon and the blue on her rump which was very dilute when she was young is almost as dark as a males now(she is a lucida) and has mothered lots of babies so I know she's a she. My other retired breeder female is about 9 and not really looking her age yet. I also have a younger pet and unproductive pair that are about 5. From what I can tell, females start losing fertility at about 5-7 years old. While the species might have a potential life expectancy in their 20s, a lot of birds that are well cared for start showing some age by their early 'teens. Based on talking to a few pet owners here and there, a lot of parrotlets die from age related issues around 12-15 years old or so.
Almost universally it has been breeders I've talked to that have older birds. These guys are so accident prone, when allowed the maximal freedom people seem to feel they should give their pets, it tends to result in tragic accidents. Basically as far as I can tell, guilt over caging pets and wanting them to be happy ends up killing them because people can't watch all the time and eventually become distracted or lax. I give mine reasonably large cages and then the pet bird is only allowed out when she's physically on me or when I'm in the room actively watching her on top of her cage. I have a cat that while good with the big birds, just can't resist the parrotlet. And for whatever reason, when this species decides to fly, where ever the worst place they could possibly land could be, that is where they land. Behind the refrigerator, on top of the knife I used to cut my salad, in the glass of water, on top of the dog, on the macaw cage. Really, of all the possible places a bird could touch down at, a parrotlet will pick the worst possible spot more often than not. Which means when I'm not looking and actively paying attention, there is about a 100% chance a parrotlet will get itself into a deadly situation. Every time I have one fly, my eyes immediately scan the room and look for the worst place they could land and normally I get their right before the bird touches down and so far have not had any deaths. Although, a couple injured toes from the quakers.
