Fastest Bird in the World? Speed Reaching 418 km/h, Almost No Natural Predators After Adulthood
Worldwide, bird species are countless and diverse. Friends, do you know about the frigatebird? This bird has a large body, with adult body lengths reaching up to 112 cm, and its long, slender wingspan can reach about 2.3 meters. Its tail is fan-shaped, which effectively helps with directional control. The most striking feature of male frigatebirds is their enormous, bright red gular pouch. These birds also fly very fast, with a maximum speed of 418 km/h. After adulthood, they essentially have no natural predators.
So, how fast can a frigatebird fly? Approximately six months is enough to circle the Earth once. When we say this, some people may wonder, don't frigatebirds get tired during flight? This leads us to one of the characteristics of the frigatebird, which is that unlike other birds, they can fly and sleep at the same time. In just two minutes, they can be full of energy again, and they only need to sleep for one hour a day. This is truly a 'perpetual motion bird'
In terms of hunting, frigatebirds are also very 'aggressive'. They rarely hunt on their own, and most of the time they directly snatch food from other birds' mouths, hence they are also known as 'pirate birds'. Are they inherently cruel? Actually, not really. As far as we know, the feathers of this frigatebird contain little to no oil, so they cannot sink into the water and will immediately sink if they do. Therefore, they can only snatch food from other birds' mouths.
It is precisely because of the 'ruthless' reputation that frigatebirds have developed due to necessity that no other animals will come to bother this large bird. Plus, frigatebirds also have a very long lifespan, so they basically have no natural enemies after adulthood. However, despite all this, frigatebirds have a long incubation period and their breeding numbers are very scarce, so they are now listed as protected animals. Hopefully, more and more people will pay attention to this strange 'big bird'.
