Have you ever wondered what birds have the longest wingspan? Or maybe you’re wondering what species of bird can fly the farthest? Out of roughly 10,824 species of birds, only a few species can have impressive records like these.
The first record is the tallest bird belonging to the common ostrich, a ginormous bird that can stretch up to 2.75 meters or roughly 9 feet. This is taller than the tallest man in the world who is 8 feet and 11 inches tall. This is also around 1 and 1/5 times taller than Shaq who is 7’ 1”. Sadly, ostriches don’t have any arms so they can’t play basketball or dunk. Ostriches need to be this tall as they eat leaves from trees as part of their diet similar to giraffes.
The bird with the longest wingspan in the world is none other than the Snowy Albatross, measuring at 8.2-11 feet. Their wingspan can be 1 and a half times bigger than an artificial christmas tree which averages 7.5 feet in height. These long wings help them stay flying for longer without using their muscles. These wings help them ride on wings letting them even sleep while in flight. This is a common trait for other albatrosses who fly, hunt, and sleep all in the air for almost a year.
The longest distance a bird has flown without stopping was a mindblowing 13,560 km or 8,435 miles by a bar-tailed Godwit. This is 1 and 1/10 times the size of the Earth’s circumference and 30 times longer than the Grand Canyon. The reason why they can fly this far is because before a long distance flight they eat lots of fatty food to gain around 55% of their body weight.
There are many fast birds in the world, but the Peregrine Falcon not only is the fastest bird in the world but also considered the fastest animal in the world. With an astonishing speed of over 240 mph, this is 2 times faster than an ordinary car at a top speed and 3 and a half times faster than a Cheetah at top speed. The Peregrine Falcon uses his speed in order to hunt other birds using a stoop. (A dive coming from high altitudes used to hunt prey). The stoop keeps them accelerate, and with their powerful flight muscles and the shape of their wings, the Peregrine Falcon is the fastest animal in the world.
Living over 140 million years ago, the Archaeopteryx is the oldest known bird species. The Archaeopteryx is a very small bird, despite being a dinosaur, only measuring 0.5 meters or roughly 1.64 feet. 140 million years ago was the Cretaceous Period. In the Cretaceous Period, the Earth’s continents were mostly joined together to make 2 giant continents of Gondwana and Laurasia and it is the period where dinosaurs went extinct. The Archaeopteryx lived as a carnivorous bird eating small lizard-like animals and insects.
In conclusion, many birds have impressive and shocking records that many people don’t know about. Birds have been evolving for millions of years, so there are many more records like these. You can go to 10 mind-blowing facts about birds | to learn more facts about birds.
