BUILDING KNOWLEDGE Record breakers

WHICH is Europe’s fastest landfowl in flight: European Golden Plover or Red Grouse? This was the question, posed in 1951, which led to the publication of the first Guinness Book of Records in 1955. The answer wasn’t given in that first edition; it wasn’t answered until the 36th edition in 1989. Red Grouse is the fastest with speeds up to 100 km/h, while European Golden Plover doesn’t exceed 90 km/h.

National Guinness World Records Day is traditionally held in mid-November and this would seem to be a good time to ponder on some of the more obscure record-breaking birds and birding activities. Here are some interesting facts.

• Fastest and slowest: the fastest-flying bird is Peregrine Falcon, which has been measured reaching a speed of 390 km/h in a stoop. But what about the slowest-flying bird? This record is jointly held by Eurasian and American Woodcocks, which can rode at 8 km/h. • Fastest running: Ostrich is the fastest-running flightless bird, reaching 72 km/h, but what is the fastest-running flying bird? The answer is, perhaps unsurprisingly, Greater Roadrunner which has been measured running at 42 km/h. • Highest and lowest breeding: the highest-living bird is Alpine Chough, which lives and breeds as high as 6,500 m above sea level in Nepal. The lowest-living species recorded is House Sparrow, following breeding by several birds which took up residence in Frickley Colliery, West Yorks, at a depth of 640 m from 1975-78.

• Highest pitched: the bird with the highest-pitched call so far measured is Black Jacobin, a species of hummingbird. Observers had seen it opening its beak as if vocalising, but couldn’t hear anything. Subsequent studies showed that it was producing sounds with a mean frequency of 13.8 kHz, well above the range of human hearing. The lowest sound comes from Dwarf Cassowary and can be as low as 23 Hz; the lowest-pitched British bird is Western Capercaillie, which produces sounds averaging 28.7 Hz. • Hungriest bird: this title goes to the hummingbirds, as a family as they need to consume half their body weight in food each day to survive. The record for not eating goes to the Emperor Penguin which fasted for 134 days – by which time he was no doubt the hungriest bird! • Largest collection of bird stamps: many birders like to collect bird stamps and the largest collection of these

comprises 14,558 stamps from 332 countries; it is owned by

Jin Feibao of China (2018). How many species it contains is not mentioned. • Longest tongue: relative to body size, the longest tongue of any bird is reputed to be Wryneck, whose tongue measures two thirds of its entire 16.5 cm body length (excluding its tail feathers). One would imagine that Sword-billed Hummingbird might challenge this. • Most clothes in a bird nest:

Red Kites are renowned for using clothes in their nests, but according to Guinness the record is held by White Stork. Following the removal of a 600-kg nest from Colmar Cathedral in France in 1909, it was found to contain 17 ladies’ black stockings, five

Greater Roadrunner is the fastest-running flying bird, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. fur caps, three shoes, a sleeve from a white silk blouse, and four buttons from a railway porter’s uniform!

• Biggest bird table: if you want to set your own record, try beating the one for the world’s largest bird table. Measuring 2.5 m by 2 m with a height of 85 cm, it was in Tennessee, USA. It held more than 180 kg of sunflower seeds and more than 50 birds were counted using it at one time.

You can find more on the Guinness World

Records website at www. guinnessworldrecords.com. Chris Harbard