birding-aus

Parrots in Flight. Who's Fastest?

To: Peter Shute <>, Barney Enders <>
Subject: Parrots in Flight. Who's Fastest?
From: Kev Lobotomi <>
Date: Wed, 24 Feb 2016 12:52:20 +0000
I would have thought Swift Parrot would be the fastest! Hence its name! They 
are rather quick in flight. I think I've clocked Musk Lorikeets at least at 60 
KPH flying next to a car.-Kevin Bartram

> From: 
> To: 
> Date: Wed, 24 Feb 2016 21:47:11 +1100
> Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Parrots in Flight. Who's Fastest?
> CC: 
>
> Even if one manages to clock some in a car, who's to say they couldn't go 
> faster still if they wanted? Perhaps GPS tracking is a better method. You 
> could check what their fastest speed was in a week or a month, on the 
> assumption that they might have been fleeing a raptor in that time.
>
> Steering with your knees while taking photos out the window? Hmm.
>
> Peter Shute
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> > On 24 Feb 2016, at 8:17 PM, Barney Enders <> wrote:
> >
> > That is a very interesting question, but getting the chance to drive
> > parallel to them will be the hard part.
> > I also had large flight aviaries and they certainly didn't take long to get
> > from one end to the other which they did constantly flying
> > around calling loudly.
> > Little and Purple-crowned Lorikeets are also very fast.
> >
> > There are a lot of birds that their speed is deceiving, a few years ago
> > there were a pair of resident Australian Shelduck living at the
> > Mondecollina Bore down the Strezelecki Track with a family of Grey Teal who
> > I thought would have been a lot faster than a lumbering
> > Shelduck.
> > The drake spent a lot of time trying to hunt the Teal away, not letting them
> > land on the open water and he did it with ease, the only way
> > the Teal could avoid him was cornering tightly or diving quickly just as he
> > stretched his neck out to grab them , he would do a large half circle
> > and come back and do it over again.
> > I sat there watching it happen taking many photos, he would walk around the
> > shallow  water with his mate for a while feeding and when the
> > Teal re-appeared would start again, as there was no water close by the Teal
> > had no alternative but to come back to this spot.
> >
> > On the way home driving along the gravel road near Windorah I noticed a
> > large flock of Flock Bronzewing Pigeons spread out across the plain flying
> > only a few feet above the ground as they do.
> > They were coming towards me at an angle on my right heading to cross the
> > road in front of me so I speed up and turned them parallel to the road
> > and took photos while steering with my knees ( Not recommended ) I kept them
> > there for a considerable distance and I clocked them at 112 km an hour.
> > These photos were published on a Bird Site a few years ago under the heading
> > " How fast can a Pigeon fly "
> >
> > There are many references to how fast the Peregrine Falcon flies so there
> > must be some way of measuring the speed birds fly that is a lot safer than
> > steering with ones knees  Ha Ha.
> > Barney.
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Birding-Aus  On Behalf Of
> > Donald G. Kimball
> > Sent: Wednesday, 24 February 2016 2:07 PM
> > To: birding-aus
> > Subject: [Birding-Aus] Parrots in Flight. Who's Fastest?
> >
> > Okay forgive me if I return to being a 10 year old boy and wanting to know a
> > question like this one but having spent so much time watching and filming
> > parrots I can't help but wonder.  Okay here are my impressions.  It seems
> > like Rainbow Lorikeets are crazy fast.  But having said that, I watched 2
> > Princess near Jupiter Well in 2008 that flew about 500m in about 4 seconds
> > to a nearby She-Oak.  Which begs the question also.  Are Princess faster
> > than other parrots? An internet acquaintance swore his free-flying pet
> > Princess was the fastest parrot in all of Aus.  I guess the only way we
> > might know is if folks on here have noticed parrot species flying parrallel
> > with their cars and took note of the speed.
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