Amazing Facts about Birds

• The fastest bird is the peregrine falcon . It can swoop down on its prey at a speed of 300 km an hour.

• The largest bird is the ostrich. It can grow as tall as 2.5 metres and it weighsabout 150 kg.

• The smallest bird is the hummingbird. It measures about 5 cm and weighs only 3 grams.

• The greatest traveller is the Arctic tern. It travels about 17 000 km between its breeding grounds in the Arctic and its winter home in the Antarctic.

Arctic tern

• The fastest running bird is the ostrich. It can run at a speed of up to 70 km an hour.

• The highest fliers are vultures and geese. They have been seen at heights of almost 10,000 metres.

• The heaviest flying bird is the great bustard. It must fly with a weight of about 20 kg.

• The Australian pelican has the longest beak—47 cm.

• Owls have the best vision and hearing at night.

• Storks and albatrosses have the longest wingspans (almost 4 metres) .

• Parrots are the longest-living birds. They can reach an age of up to 100 years. 

Words

• beak = the hard and pointed mouth of a bird
• breeding grounds =places where animals go to lay eggs or have babies
• bustard =large European land bird
• hummingbird =a very brightly coloured tropical bird whose wings move very quickly
• measure =here: how long something is
• owl = a bird with large eyes that hunts at night
• peregrine falcon = a hunting bird with a black and white body
• prey = an animal or bird that is hunted and eaten by another animal
• swoop = to move down very quickly in order to attack someone or something
• tern =a black and white sea bird that has long wings and a tail with two points
• vulture = a large bird that eats dead animals
• weigh =how heavy something is
• wingspan = the distance from one end of the wing to the other