birding-aus

Parrots in Flight. Who's Fastest?

To: 'Kev Lobotomi' <>, 'Peter Shute' <>, 'Barney Enders' <>
Subject: Parrots in Flight. Who's Fastest?
From: Tony Russell <>
Date: Wed, 24 Feb 2016 21:49:54 +0000
Fig parrots are pretty fast too.

-----Original Message-----
From: Birding-Aus  On Behalf Of
Kev Lobotomi
Sent: Wednesday, February 24, 2016 11:22 PM
To: Peter Shute; Barney Enders
Cc: 
Subject: Parrots in Flight. Who's Fastest?

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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