Amazing Facts about Birds
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The fastest bird is the peregrine falcon . It can swoop down on its prey at a speed of 300 km an hour.
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The largest bird is the ostrich. It can grow as tall as 2.5 metres and it weighsabout 150 kg.
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The smallest bird is the hummingbird. It measures about 5 cm and weighs only 3 grams.
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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
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The fastest running bird is the ostrich. It can run at a speed of up to 70 km an hour.
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The highest fliers are vultures and geese. They have been seen at heights of almost 10,000 metres.
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The heaviest flying bird is the great bustard. It must fly with a weight of about 20 kg.
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The Australian pelican has the longest beak—47 cm.
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Owls have the best vision and hearing at night.
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Storks and albatrosses have the longest wingspans (almost 4 metres) .
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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
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