So far, no bird known can match the flying speed of a peregrine falcon in its hunting dive. The peregrine falcon is the fastest bird – and in fact the fastest animal on Earth – when in a dive. As it executes this dive, the peregrine falcon soars to a great height, then dives steeply at speeds of over 300 kilometers (200 miles) per hour.
The video below gives you an idea of how fast this is, as seen from the falcon’s point of view.
The peregrine falcon’s diving speed is amazing. But this bird doesn’t make the top 10 when traveling in level flight. Studies have clocked an Indian bird, the spine-tailed swift, at over 160 kilometers (100 miles) per hour. To see more of the world’s fastest birds while traveling at level flight, see this link.
In 2011, scientists discovered the fastest migratory known so far: the great snipe. After following the birds’ migration south from Sweden to central Africa using tiny tracking devices, Swedish scientists found that the birds fly non-stop over a distance of around 6,760 kilometeres (4,200 miles) at a phenomenal 97 kilometers (60 miles) per hour.
Great snipe is the fastest migratory bird ever discovered
What about other birds? Scientists who’ve tracked birds with Doppler radar say most birds cruise along at somewhere around 40 kilometers (25 miles) miles an hour. But ducks and other waterfowl often fly twice that fast. So do racing pigeons.
A headwind or tailwind will change a bird’s speed. Also, birds fly faster when they’re chasing prey or escaping a predator. Some birds are pretty fast on their feet, too. The speediest is the ostrich. If you’re in a car, you might imagine one of these big birds running alongside you. Its average running speed is about 30 miles an hour – but it can sprint even faster.
By the way, the Guinness Book of World Records – an obvious source for the answer to questions like ‘what’s the world’s fastest bird?’ – actually came into existence because of an argument about the fastest game bird in Europe. In 1951, Sir Hugh Beaver, the managing director of Guinness Breweries, was in southeastern Ireland with a group of friends, enjoying a day’s shooting. Failing to shoot a golden plover, Sir Hugh maintained that this must be the world’s fastest flying game bird. His companions disagreed. Sir Hugh used his own fortune to research the question, and that’s how the Guiness Book of World records got started.
Our thanks to:
Jeff Cilek
Vice President
Peregrine Fund
Boise, Idaho
Gary D. Schnell
Curator of Birds & Professor of Zoology
Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, University of Oklahoma
Norman, Oklahoma
Most unbelievable thing I have ever seen! It was Kildeer shaped in flight. It had white stripes on the bottom of the wings. It was circling overhead and about every 10 wing beats it would beat it wings really fast and gain about 5 feet in altitude. It would climb to about 300-400 feet and then go into a dive. At about 30 feet above the ground, it would pull up and you would hear this sound that sounded like an elephant. It has to be wing vibration!(I’m a pilot) To pull up that hard going that fast has to create that weird noise. All the while it is circling, it is making it’s regular sound, “Cheep, cheep”
Any idea what it could be? I have some crude video.
Jeff
Jeff,
I came across your question after seeing the exact same thing. A bird with a wing span of 10″, or so. Same cricling, same cheeping, same occasional quick flapping to gain altitude…and then every 30-seconds, or so, a super-fast dive that made a whirring noise for a second or two…the the whole routine again. We watched it for 30 minutes. I live in North Dakota…usually very few unique birds. What is this one?
Like the site, I found it in Google keep up the good work!
Thanks for visiting Stephanie!
Incomplete question. fastest in being what? fastest in eating? fastest in running? fastest in having sex? what?
I would have to assume that topic is about fastest bird being in flight, and if that is the case, it has to be considered the maximum speed a bird can achieve in a level flight in a windless condition. and true, that speed is normally reached under a threat from predator. Falcon’s topic should never be even brought when talking about fastest flying bird. It dives and diving is altogather different thing. its free falling of a body under gravity. as for flying, falcons don’t even feature in top 10 flying birds. precise measurements is very difficult to say which is the fastest flying bird, but it could be anything from spine tailed swift, frigate bird, racing pigeon, or even ducks.
[...] flights by great snipes: long and fast non-stop migration over benign habitats What are the world’s fastest birds? by Planet Earth Online Email [...]
I like Falcons. 200 mph, thats almost as fast than a very nice Mclaren, and even though its not in the industries or markets anymore, but still used to be one of the fastest cars in the world. Anyway, Falcons are pretty cool, too bad they live usually in the mountains and other high altitude places. I would love to keep a Peregrine Falcon as a pet. Its pretty astonishing the way the bird flew at very high speed, dodging trees in the way and also diving really fast down in the video.
Tom
Also who knows Bobby, maybe the people who measure the Peregrine Falcon’s flying speed must use a speed counter like the one the Police uses.
Just my opinion
Tom
[...] Todo empezó en 1951 cuando sir Hugh Beaver que por aquel entones era directivo de la compañía cervecera fue de cacería y se puso a discutir con los compañeros que ave de caza era más rápida si el chorlito dorado o el urogallo. Después de mucho discutir e incluso consultar libros sobre caza, no pudieron dar con la respuesta, lo que le dio la idea de publicar un libro sobre esa clase de cuestiones. Pues de ahi salió el World Records Guinness para recopilar “the longest, shortest, tallest, fastest facts”, que o quien es el más grande, corto, alto y rápido en cierta cuestión. Por cierto al final parece ser que ni el chorlito ni el urogallo, se trataría del halcón peregrino. [...]
Cool beans