How do birds last so long flapping their wings non-stop?
In: Biology
Birds are not heavy, they have thin bones and their feathers have adapted to improve lift and lower drag. This results in a great glide ratio. If you watch birds fly, you’ll see just how impressive their gliding time is.
Birds have fairly strong muscles controlling their wings. Their pectoral/chest muscles are massive relative to the rest of their muscles. This is necessary for both panic flights when predators are nearby, and to help long distance flights.
Migratory birds like Geese also do not fly non-stop, they take frequent breaks.
Also, they generally don’t go non-stop. Flap, flap, glide for a while, etc.
They also follow air currents. use uprises, and fly in formations to minimize air resistance.
Flying for birds is more exhausting than jumping/walking.
Birds do nothing else than flying most of the time, so their muscles are super strong for being that tiny.
An athlete can run for well over 4 hours non stop.
Now look with this thought to birds, they are just very athletic and use their energy.
They also eat meat all day long to get that much energy. A protein heavy diet with flying everyday prepares them for their long flights.
4.5 billion years of evolution. They’re made to do it. It’s like asking how humans can last so long walking.
they think hard about baseball scores or spiders when they think they can’t last much longer
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