Peregrine falcon fastest of all birds?

[Donna]

ONE OF our Epping readers forwarded a few small body feathers that had been plucked by a hawk from the breast of its prey and one tail feather from the attacking hawk that our reader suggested may have been from a harrier. He inquired if I would be able to identify them.

I tend to agree with our reader’s suggestion that a harrier, formerly known as the marsh hawk, could well have been the attacking hawk. The tail feather submitted was basically brown with a thick, black end stripe. It had eight thinner, wavy, horizontal dark stripes alternating with lighter brown under-color its entire length.

This general description might also match a juvenile sharpshined hawk’s tail feather as they are brown in color. Sorry to say I have no idea as to the identity of the partial, downy, plucked body feathers from the hawk’s prey.

The subject of bird feathers is an interesting one. They are of many types that range from bits of down close to the skin to several sizes and shapes of body feathers for additional warmth, and then there are the wing and tail feathers. All birds outlive their feathers in the wear and tear of their lives, thus, feather replacement continue’s throughout a bird’s life. When we look at birds, the feathers we observe most are the larger, outer body feathers of the wings and tail. All feathers are made of protein and the various colors are composed of keratin protein. When a feather is formed and matured, the nutritive material is no longer needed; the sheath splits and falls away or is removed by preening and the feather vane unrolls. With respect to the molt of wild turkeys when their wing and tail feathers have dropped to the ground, male turkey feathers hold their colors longer than do female feathers. That occurs due to the fact that as these turkey feathers develop, the males secret more keratin protein into them than do females. In time, all feathers lose their bright colors quite rapidly and consequently are not as easily noticed as they blend into ground cover.

The flight speed of birds is a subject I have found to be of great interest. Which bird is the fastest? Which is the slowest?

My guess is that the answer to the last question could well be the penguin. Penguins are birds yet they have no aerial life at all. Although they do not fly they do have the reputation as being the best swimmers among birds, even out-swimming many species of fish.

The fastest of all birds is reputed to be the peregrine falcon having reached a speed of over 200 miles per hour. A duck hawk has been reported as reaching the speed of 175 while some sandpipers have been recorded at 110 mph.

The great blue heron cruises at a rather sedate 20 mph; the mallard at about 40. Most small perching birds travel at speeds of between 20 and 30 miles per hour. Hummingbirds, our smallest birds, are swift in flight. They have pointed wings that are swept back like those of a speedy aircraft and similar to falcons, swifts, and swallows. The ruby-throated has been timed out of doors (possibly aided by wind) at 50-60 miles per hour. However, experiments in a wind tunnel by Greenwalt (1960), clocked a ruby-throat at 27 mph. Scheithauer (1967) timed the daily courtship chase of a pair of South American bluethroated sylph hummingbirds at 29.747.4 mph.

During migration the same species of bird may travel at a much faster speed than it would if it was loafing about in its home territory. A bird attempting to escape from the talons of a hungry hawk will increase its speed considerably during the chase.

Edward Howe Forbush, author of several books on birds including the threevolume set, “Birds of Massachusetts and Other New England States,� once told of his experience while riding in a train beside the Merrimack River. He observed that the flight speed of a small flock of mergansers maintained the exact speed of a train (approximately 30 mph) until a loud blast of the locomotive whistle startled them. At that sound the ducks shot forward with a speed that carried them twice as fast as the speed of the train.

New Hampshire.com