Everyone, probably, one day asks the question: what is the fastest bird in the world? What speed is it subject to? What does she look like and what does she eat? We decided to answer all these questions in our new article, where we will talk in detail about the lifestyle, habitats, the habits of the world's fastest creature, and also, as a bonus, we will provide here a list of nine other birds that also amazed people. the speed of their flights.
Peregrine Falcon: the fastest predator in the world
Probably few people know that the speed of the fastest bird in the world in a dive flight reaches three hundred twenty two kilometers per hour. For comparison, this equals 90 meters per second! No animal in the world can reach this speed anymore.
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Meet the peregrine falcon, the world's fastest flyer. This handsome man from the family of falcons stands out from the whole animal world not only for his super speed, but also for his extremely high intelligence. Since ancient times, people have tamed the fastest birds in the world and used them for the popular game in the Middle Ages - falconry.
By the way, the peregrine falcon has always remained a bird, which not everyone could keep. The famous English work Boke of St. Albans ”, dating back to 1486, it is said that only a person of a high family, such as a duke or a prince, can have a peregrine falcon.
Unfortunately, it is because of human negligence that the fastest creatures in the world almost disappeared from the face of the Earth as a species. In the forties of the last century, when pesticides began to be used most widely, and among them DDT, the already few peregrine falcons were literally on the verge of extinction. These chemicals, which were sprayed on the fields, had an extremely detrimental effect on this species of birds, due to which their population began to decline rapidly. And only in 1970, when the use of these pesticides in agriculture was prohibited, the population of the world's fastest flyers began to grow again.
The size of an adult bird can vary from thirty-five to fifty centimeters, and females are always larger than males. The color of the upper body is gray, the abdomen is light. The beak is short, bent (like all falcons), and its blow is so strong that when meeting with it, the victim's head often flies off. It feeds on birds such as doves or duck, and small mammals such as mice, ground squirrels, hares and squirrels.
Peregrine Falcon is mentioned in the appendix to the CITES convention, where it is strictly forbidden to use it for sale in any part of the planet. Also, the fastest bird in the world is listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation, as an extremely rare species.
Winged lightning: top 10 fastest birds in the world
And here are a few more representatives of the bird world who will conquer you with their speed. Who deservedly takes first place, we already know - without a doubt, this peregrine falcon is the fastest creature in the world. But who follows him in speed:
Golden eagle
The golden eagle quite deservedly takes the honorable second place in our list of the fastest in the world, because the speed of its flight can reach 240-320 km / h, which is not much lower than the speed of its predecessor. The golden eagle belongs to very large birds of the genus of eagles, because its wingspan can reach two hundred and forty centimeters, and its height varies from seventy-six to ninety-three centimeters.
The golden eagle is a predator, it hunts both medium-sized birds and rodents, and small mammals, for example, it can take a sheep. Due to its dark color with golden feathers on the neck and nape, this bird received the name Golden Eagle, which means “golden eagle” in English.
Needle-tailed swift
The needle-tailed swift, also named the keytail, is in third place on our list of the fastest in the world. Its speed can reach 160 km / h, and its lifestyle is not well understood. The weight of this bird does not exceed one hundred and seventy-five grams, and the body length is twenty-two centimeters. The needle-tailed swift has chosen Siberia and the Far East as its habitat in the Russian Federation, and for the winter, representatives of this family fly to Australia. This small bird got its name because of the shape of its tail - not bifurcated, like most swifts, but collected in one sharp end or needle.
Hobby
This relatively medium-sized bird (about twenty-eight to thirty-six centimeters in size) is also a predator and belongs to the falcon family, like our record holder - a peregrine falcon, which, by the way, looks very much like a hobby. But, unlike him, the flight speed of a hobbyist is approximately 150 km / h. Also, this feathered predator is famous for never building its nests, and for breeding chicks prefers to occupy old dwellings of other birds, for example, a sparrowhawk, a crow or a magpie.
Frigate
The frigate is a bright and unusual bird that prefers to live in hot climates, for example, in the Seychelles or Australia. The speed of its movements is also impressive - it can reach 150 km / h, while the frigate can spend quite a lot of time in the air. The appearance of the males is very impressive - on the chest of each of them there is a bright red throat sac, by the size of which the females determine the most promising male. The frigates got their name in honor of the warships of the same name, as they have a habit of taking food from other birds by attacking them.
Gray-headed albatross
If the peregrine falcon can be considered the fastest in the world in terms of diving flight speed, then the gray-headed albatross confidently holds the championship in the speed of horizontal flight, for which it was entered in the Guinness Book of Records. It can travel 127 km / h without slowing down for a full eight hours, which it proved in 2004. As its name implies, this albatross is ash-gray in color, and its length often reaches eighty centimeters.
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Spur goose
Spur geese are also very fast birds, as 142 km / h is their maximum speed. These birds live in Africa, feed on aquatic plants, and also do not disdain cultivated crops - wheat and corn. The clawed goose got its name because of the sharp poisonous spurs on the fold of the wing. Geese specifically look for blister beetles, the use of which in food supplies the spurs of the goose with poisonous substances.
Medium merganser
But the average merganser, despite the funny name, is one of the most typical representatives of the duck family. It also has a corresponding color - white and red breast, white belly and neck, black back with a green tint. The average merganser differs from all its other relatives in only one thing - it can develop a truly record speed - 129 km / h.
White-breasted American Swift
In fact, there are a lot of American swifts - as many as eight varieties. But it is the white-breasted American swift that is among them the record holder for the fastest flight - it can fly within 124 km / h. The swift feeds on various insects, thanks to the hunting on which it spends most of its life in the air.
Dive
It is customary to call a diving genus a whole genus from the family of duck, which differs from, in fact, ducks in that its representatives prefer to get their food by diving into the water, where this funny name comes from. These birds are also known due to the fact that they are among the ten fastest, because their flight speed can reach 116 km / h.
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With this bird, which is in tenth place in our survey among birds, we will end the article. Visit our website more often - we still have a lot of interesting things!
