How can birds still fly if they have to constantly eat to have enough energy to fly? Doesn’t eating make them so heavy that they need even more energy to keep flying?

Question

When I watch the birds at the feeding station in my garden, I notice that individual birds often eat a lot at once. Doesn’t all that food make them so heavy that they need more energy/food to fly than they can carry in flight?

In: Biology

Answer 1

I remember once reading about how homing pigeons are incredible athletes. They can fly at 100kmh/60mph all day on nothing more than an ounce of birdseed and a sip of water.