List of birds by flight speed
This is a list of the fastest flying birds in the world. A bird's velocity is necessarily variable; a hunting bird will reach much greater speeds while diving to catch prey than when gliding. The bird with the greatest airspeed velocity is the Peregrine falcon, able to exceed 320 km/h (200 mph) in its hunting dives.[1][2] The greatest self-powered horizontal speed is achieved by Homing Racing Pigeons. They can fly 1100 km (800 miles) in a single day, and they have been recorded flying at 200 km/h (125 mph), making them the birds with the fastest speed ever recorded on a self-powered flight, and the fastest endurance flight.
Birds by flying speed
Common name | Image | Species | Family | Average horizontal speed | Maximum horizontal speed | Maximum airspeed | Flight | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Peregrine falcon | Falco peregrinus | Falconidae | 65–90 km/h[3] 40-56 mph |
110 km/h[3] 68 mph |
320 km/h (200 mph)[4] | 389 km/h [5] 242 mph |
High-speed dive—pointed long wings | |
Golden eagle | Aquila chrysaetos | Accipitridae | 45–51 km/h[6] 28-32 mph |
129 km/h[6] 80 mph |
241 km/h [7] 150 mph |
320 km/h[6] 200 mph |
||
Grey-headed albatross | Thalassarche Chrysostoma | Diomedeidae | 127 km/h[8][9][note 1] 78.9 mph |
2.2m (7'2") wingspan allows for high power use from wind. | ||||
Gyrfalcon | Falco rusticolus | Falconidae | 80–110 km/h 50-68 mph | 145 km/h 90 mph[10] | 187–209 km/h [11] 116-130 mph |
209 km/h [11][12] 130 mph |
High-speed dive—pointed long wings | |
White-throated needletail | Hirundapus caudacutus | Apodidae | 169 km/h[13]
[note 2] |
169 km/h
105 mph |
High-speed wings | |||
Common swift | Apus apus | Apodidae [14] | 111.6 km/h[13]
69.3 mph |
High-speed wings | ||||
Eurasian hobby | Falco subbuteo | Falconidae[15] | Can sometimes outfly the swift as it eats them and catches them on the wing. | |||||
Frigatebird | Fregata | Fregatidae[16] | 153km/h | Slow gliding/soaring high aspect ratio | ||||
Spur-winged goose | Plectropterus | Anatidae[17] | High-speed wings | |||||
Red-breasted merganser | Mergus serrator | Anatidae[18] | High–aspect ratio wings | |||||
Canvasback | Aythya valisineria | Anatidae[19] | High-speed wings | |||||
Eider | Somateria mollissima | Anatidae[20] | High-speed wings | |||||
Teal | Anas crecca | Anatidae | High–aspect ratio wings | |||||
Anna's hummingbird | Calypte anna | Trochilidae | 56 km/h[21]
35 mph |
Rapidly-beating wings |
Note
- Sustained ground speed for approximately nine hours with no rest on high tailwinds during an Antarctic storm.
- The British Broadcast Corporation warns from taking this value too seriously, as the methods employed to measure it have never been published, rendering its verification difficult.
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References
- "Basic Facts About Peregrine Falcon". Defenders of Wildlife. Retrieved 14 May 2013.
- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (January 15, 2008). "All About the Peregrine Falcon". Department of the Interior. Archived from the original on 2008-04-16. Retrieved 14 May 2013.
- "Fastest on Earth: Malik fuel". Extreme Science. Retrieved 14 May 2013.
- "All about the Peregrine falcon". U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 1999. Archived from the original on 16 April 2008. Retrieved 13 August 2007.
- Tom Harpole (March 2005). "Falling with the Falcon". Air & Space magazine. Retrieved 14 May 2013.
- Kari Kirschbaum and Alicia Ivory (2002). "Aquila chrysaetosgolden eagle". The Animal Diversity Web. University of Michigan Museum of Zoology. Retrieved 14 May 2013.
- "Golden Eagle Aquila chrysaetos". National Geographic Society. Retrieved 14 May 2013.
- "Guinness Records - Fastest Bird Level Flight". Guinness World Records Limited. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
- Catry, Paulo; Phillips, Richard (13 May 2004). "Sustained fast travel by a gray-headed albatross (Thalassarche chrysostoma) riding an antarctic storm". The Auk. 121 (4): 1208. doi:10.1642/0004-8038(2004)121[1208:SFTBAG]2.0.CO;2.
- "Gyrfalcon - Animal Ark".
- "Diving speeds and angles of a gyrfalcon (Falco rusticolus)". Jeb.biologists.org. 1998-07-01. Retrieved 2013-10-04.
- Tucker, VA; Cade TJ; Tucker AE. (July 1998). "Diving speeds and angles of a gyrfalcon (Falco rusticolus)". J Exp Biol. 201 (Pt 13) (Pt 13): 2061–2070. PMID 9622578.
- Jody Bourton (2 March 2010). "Supercharged swifts take flight speed record". BBC Earth News. Retrieved 14 May 2013.
- "swifts". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2013. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
- Hobby, Falco subbuteo
- Animal Corner ; Sea Birds Frigate Bird Galapagos Sea Birds - The Great Frigate Bird and the Magnificent Frigate Bird
- Free find Spur-Winged Goose Plectropterus gambensis - Kenya Birds
- The cornell lab of Ornithology - Cornell University Bird Guide - Red-breasted Merganser
- Ducks Unlimited - Wet-lands conversation Canvasback
- Family XXXIX. ANATINAE. DUCKS. Family THE EIDER DUCK. [Common Eider.] Genus FULIGULA MOLLISSIMA, Linn. [Somateria mollissima.]
- Clark, C. J.; Dudley, R. (2009). "Flight costs of long, sexually selected tails in hummingbirds". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 276 (1664): 2109–2115. doi:10.1098/rspb.2009.0090. PMC 2677254. PMID 19324747.
External links
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