Meet the world’s fastest flying bird
Driving along the 3-mile road into the Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, my wife, Kathy, and I spotted a raptor on the crossbar of a power pole about 75 yards away.
“Peregrine falcon!” I alerted. “Let’s drive slowly and ease up about 20 yards from the bird so you can get a photo before it takes off.”
No other raptor has the distinct profile of a peregrine falcon.
Its sleek, taut body held smartly upright when perched as though a soldier standing at attention; its long, pointed wings held closely against the body; its white, lightly spotted breast offset by a steel-toned blue-gray back; and its black hood with a dark bar down each side of the face like chin straps on a helmet all announce its identity as the world’s fastest-flying bird.
During an aerial assault on a pigeon or duck, a peregrine will fold back its wings to form the shape of a rocket and dive toward the prey at speeds reaching 240 mph. That’s faster than a cheetah racing 70 mph or a Formula One race car speeding at 233 mph.
We stopped the car to photograph the bird. But it took off before we could blink an eye and
flew in a wide arc over an adjacent field, only to land on a power pole far behind us. The flight was quick because even at cruising speeds a peregrine can fly 60 mph.
The bird’s body is built for high speeds. A large, keel-shaped breastbone allows the attachment of more flight muscles than in other falcons, which in turn gives the bird high-powered wingbeats at four times per second for accelerated flight.
A specialized respiratory system keeps the bird breathing effortlessly at high speeds, and a heart beating up to 900 times a minute keeps blood flowing into its muscles to limit fatigue.
Eye structure enables binocular vision for determining varying distances to prey even a mile away while simultaneously allowing close-up vision. It would be like us watching a high-flying flock of geese and reading a newspaper at the same time.
A sleek body propelled in flight by curved, swept-back wings furnishes the peregrine with aerodynamic perfection in lift, speed and maneuverability. The bird is nature’s masterpiece of a fighter jet.
We eased the car once again near the perched peregrine. Would it fly off ? Not yet. Kathy took pictures.
The bird then leaned forward to fly, but Kathy snapped a profile of the mighty falcon’s quick takeoff.