Top 10 Fastest Birds

Note that the peregrine falcon is not included because it is fast only because of its dive, not because of its actual speed when flying.

THESE BIRDS ARE ALL BASED ON LEVEL FLYING. I HATE DUCKS.

1. Spine-Tailed Swift

Also called the White-Throated Needletail, the Spine-tailed Swift tops the list of fastest birds. Its fastest recorded speed in level flight was 107 miles per hour (a cheetah can only go 60 or so). They mostly live their whole lives on cliffsides and vertical slopes, hunting insects and raising their young in massive colonies around the cliff.

2. Frigate Bird

The frigate bird can fly up to 95 miles per hour. It doesn’t hunt for food much, but mostly catches its prey while flying toward the target destination. Frigate birds care for their young for a long time before leaving them because they only lay one egg per breeding season. The males have a large red pouch below their head/neck as a way to attract females during mating season. Therefore, the above picture denotes a female frigate bird because it has no red pouch.

3. Spur-Winged Goose

Geese now. honestly. doesn’t deserve a description.

4. Red-Breasted Merganser

Hey look a random duck. Doesn’t deserve a description either.

5. White-Rumped Swift

The white-rumped swift has an extremely large distribution across the southeastern and most of southwestern Africa. It eats insects as a second-level consumer. They are extremely common and are thus not endangered. One reason for this is that females may produce dozens of new chicks annually. Forget ducks, this thing is cute. It should be before them.

6. Canvasback Duck

More ducks.

7. Eider Duck

Hey, at least this one’s kinda cute. NO. IT’S STILL A DUCK.

8. Teal

Duck. ’nuff said.

9. Mallard

Sigh.

10. Pintail

Hey, this one actually looks half decent. Unfortunately I will hate ducks from here on out.