The Fastest Bird On Earth

fmdog44

fmdog44

Well-known Member
Location
Houston, Texas
The Peragrine Falcon can hit speeds up to 242 mph. Just saw that today on a PBS documentary about unusual birds and thought I would pass it on because who would ever guess that any animal can travel that fast?! It is not only the fastest bird but the fastest animal on the planet.
 

When I was around seven, I found a very young Peragrine Falcon around the block from where I lived, in Chicago. I took it home, and we put it in a box with some straw and a blanket. It had its full juvenile feathers, and we figured it must have been about four months old. We gave it a piece of my mom's brisket, and it tore into it. In the morning, it was stone dead. I was pretty sad, and my opinion of my Mom's cooking kind of took a hit.

We never figured exactly how it came to be in a front yard on the South Side of Chicago.
 
Falcons are fascinating. I think the fastest land animal is the Cheetah - 70 mph for short bursts. They have a flexible membrane in their back that acts like a spring - storing energy when it bends & springing straight with each lunge.
 

win231 said:
Falcons are fascinating. I think the fastest land animal is the Cheetah - 70 mph for short bursts. They have a flexible membrane in their back that acts like a spring - storing energy when it bends & springing straight with each lunge.
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Watching a Cheetah mom sprint across the Maasai Mara, one morning, while on safari, as her cubs played in the distance, is a sight I'll never forget. Amazing!
 
I'm amazed by animals. They aren't as "dumb" as we make them out to be. I keep finding out that there isn't any human trait or attribute, which you can't find somewhere in the rest of the animal world. For example, there was a squirrel, who was able to recognize me. He lived in the trees around my home. Whenever he saw me, he'd jump up and down and chatter away. I apparently did something that royally teed him off. He didn't do this with other people. Here was a tiny aniaml, who could tell humans apart from one another.
 
fuzzybuddy said:
I'm amazed by animals. They aren't as "dumb" as we make them out to be. I keep finding out that there isn't any human trait or attribute, which you can't find somewhere in the rest of the animal world. For example, there was a squirrel, who was able to recognize me. He lived in the trees around my home. Whenever he saw me, he'd jump up and down and chatter away. I apparently did something that royally teed him off. He didn't do this with other people. Here was a tiny aniaml, who could tell humans apart from one another.
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There is a common trait in people who say "animals are dumb." They are dumb.
 
fuzzybuddy said:
I'm amazed by animals. They aren't as "dumb" as we make them out to be. I keep finding out that there isn't any human trait or attribute, which you can't find somewhere in the rest of the animal world. For example, there was a squirrel, who was able to recognize me. He lived in the trees around my home. Whenever he saw me, he'd jump up and down and chatter away. I apparently did something that royally teed him off. He didn't do this with other people. Here was a tiny aniaml, who could tell humans apart from one another.
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Clip on the TV news, yesterday: This squirrel is a porch pirate. He waits for mail and Amazon deliveries, grabs them, and heads off to the bushes. The whole thing was caught on a doorbell camera video.

 
It always amazed me how he could pick me out. People would come and go, that wouldn't bother him. Cats view squirrels as prey, and it didn't bother him when my three were outside. But as soon as I stepped one foot outside my door, he would jump up and down, with this really loud chatter. And it wouldn't stop until I got in the car or back inside. I have no idea what I did to piss him off.
 
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