Here are some facts that might amaze you,
from candidates for the “Guinness Book of Bird Records” (if such a thing
exists!)
The largest nest – the honour belongs to
the bald eagle, which heaps so many sticks on to its nest (known as an eyrie) that
the final result can weigh as much as a family car!
The largest egg – The volume of an ostrich’s egg is 24 times that of a chicken’s egg. You would also need a bit more than a teaspoon to crack it open if you had one for breakfast – you could stand on it and it still wouldn’t break!
The smallest egg – At the other end of the scale is the bee hummingbird that lays an egg that is only 6 millimetres (0.2 inches) long.
Most eggs – The grey partridge lays anything from 15 to 19 eggs in a single clutch.
The biggest wingspan – The wandering albatross has a wingspan of 3.5 metres (11.5 feet). It also has the largest number of flight feathers of any bird, at 88.
The deepest diver – That is the emperor
penguin. Although most dives do not exceed 100 metres (328 feet) they have been
known to go as deep as 400 metres (1300 feet).
Fastest in the air – The peregrine can dive
on its prey at up to 180 kilometres an hour (119 miles an hour).
Fastest runner among flying birds – The
name is a clue, in that the roadrunner can reach a speed of 37 kilometres an
hour (30 miles an hour).
Staying aloft – When a young swift leaves
the nest it might not come back to anything solid for another three years.
Swifts do everything in mid-air apart from raising their young. If a swift lands
on the ground it can have great trouble getting aloft again, due to its short
legs and very long wings.
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