• Question: How many times does a bird flap its wings in a minuite?

    Asked by miaiber to Catherine, Charlotte, Colin, Becki, Rick on 25 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Rick Smith

      Rick Smith answered on 25 Jun 2013:

      It depends on the type and size of the bird and also how it is flying. Hovering takes a lot more energy, so humming birds have to flap their wings extremely fast, this can apparently be as high as 4800 times per minute!

    • Photo: Rebecca Scott

      Rebecca Scott answered on 25 Jun 2013:

      Like Rick says, it depends on the bird and it’s size and all sorts, and not all birds fly (like penguins).

    • Photo: Colin Swift

      Colin Swift answered on 25 Jun 2013:

      That really depends on the bird, and what it is doing – it can be gliding in whch case not many or in the case of a hummingbird about 40 to 80 times a second – though this depends on the species!

    • Photo: Charlotte Dalton

      Charlotte Dalton answered on 25 Jun 2013:

      I asked some starlings that were on my balcony and they wouldn’t tell me 🙂 hummingbirds flap pretty fast (80 times per sec) but vultures only manage 1 flap per sec! So in a minute that would only be 60 for the vulture but 4800 for the hummingbird

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