Regarding speed, all birds are divided into 2 categories, the first category reaches maximum speed during normal flight, while the second develop speed when diving. Kinetic energy depends on many indicators, such as body weight, altitude of the flight itself, acceleration of gravity.
When diving, birds do not fly, they fall freely. But with a horizontal flight, the speed changes from acceleration and body weight. Consider the top five fastest birds on our planet.
Fifth place - Cheglok
Cheglok is a member of the falcon family, a very small bird and opens the top five fastest birds in the world. Is gaining cheglock speed up to 160 km / hand the wingspan is 80 cm. You can confuse the cheglock with a peregrine falcon, but its size gives out, it reaches a length of 28-36 cm. The wings during the flight represent the shape of a sickle. He chooses a forest and forest-steppe zone for his habitat, in the diet he can be found small birds and large insects such as butterflies, beetles, dragonflies. Can also feast on mice or small animals.
Also, the cheglock loves to hunt for a needle-tailed swift. Interesting detail cheglok can catch a bird as much as 3 times its size as prey, although the need for meat in this bird is only 30 grams per day.
Fourth Place - Frigate
The genus of frigates includes 5 species of birds. It lives mainly in the tropics and subtropics.They like to spend most of their time flying over water. The wingspan of the frigate reaches 244 cm and a length of 75-114 cm, while the body weight is only 500-1500 g. These indicators contribute to a strong impulse, which allows the frigate to gain speed. Frigates take prey from other water birds, although they could perfectly get food on their own.
Therefore, frigates are called thieves. They even build nests from stolen materials. Moreover, the wings of the frigate have a structure that does not allow them to take off from the ground. Speed frigates develop up to 153 km / h.
The state of Naura frigates are their symbolism, the locals use them to catch fish. At the same time, the Polynesian people use frigates as mail for messaging, like pigeons. Tame frigates and teach various tricks. They can even be drunk from the mouth.
Third Place - Tailed Swift
The representative of the swift family is the needle-tailed swift. There are only small insects in the diet. These birds live in South and Southeast Asia, in the Far East, they can also be found in Siberia. At the same time, he is moving to Australia for the winter. During his horizontal flight, the bird reaches a speed of 160 km / h. This is very surprising, because these birds develop such a speed only due to their own strength.
At the same time, the weight of the swift is only 100-175 g, and reaches 20 cm in length. The wingspan for these indicators reaches 50 cm. This bird is characterized by maneuverability, so it eats right during the flight.Spends in flight almost the whole day, because the legs of the needle-tail swift have a special structure, and are not at all adapted to movement on the surface. However, swifts sometimes become prey of a peregrine falcon, although they have high speed and maneuverability in the air.
Second place - Golden eagle
The golden eagle is a representative of the hawk family, it feeds on small and medium rodents, and even a deer can choose a golden eagle as a victim. Golden Eagles live in the USA (in North America), in South Africa, in Europe, mostly in mountainous areas. Golden eagle is also found in Russia. Rather aggressive and dangerous birds.
The maximum speed that can be gained during a free fall of 320 km / h, basically the set of speed is accounted for by the mass, in the golden eagle it is sufficient, is 2.8-6.7 kg, while the mass of the females is greater than that of the males.
Golden Eagles, unlike peregrine falcons, cannot track their dive process at tremendous speed, a significant wingspan of 180-240 cm does not even help them in this. Indeed, the proportion of wing area to mass is less than that of a peregrine falcon. Golden eagles are revered and respected in many tribes and ancient cultures for their hunting qualities and skills.
Each golden eagle has its own hunting territory, they nest 3-4 km from each other, observing the distance. Nests are built from tree branches, so they are used for several years, the dwelling can reach 2 meters in diameter.
Golden eagles incubate for 45 days, laying 1 to 3 eggs.Both parents feed their chicks, but in the first months food production falls only on the father. The female does not fly away from her cubs during this period. Male and female golden eagle remain faithful to each other throughout life, while nests are built in the same place.
The fastest bird in the world
Peregrine Falcon - the fastest bird in the world. At the time of diving, it picks up speed in the order of 322 km / h. Peregrine Falcon belongs to the falcon family; other small birds are used as food. Hunting is also for hares and squirrels. Habitat - forest and forest-steppe zone. You can meet peregrine falcon on all continents, except Antarctica, while they avoid meeting people, prefer to settle in rocky terrain.
The body length of the peregrine falcon reaches 38-50 cm, and the wingspan varies from 83-113 cm. females differ in size up. They also manage to calculate the flight and air flow, as well as the speed of their strike with their victim.
During one of the flights peregrine dive speed reached 389 km / h, so peregrine falcons are considered high-speed representatives of the fauna on our planet.
Birds today fascinate and amaze us with the beauty of their “dance” during the flight, this is an amazing sight when we raise our heads up and watch them.
