How high can birds fly? – YouTube Dictation Transcript & Vocabulary

1.hi it's Esther I love watching Birds it's so amazing how they can soar through the air like this Eagle it's flying off the top of the Burge Khalifa the tallest skyscraper in the world and it's making it look so easy in case you're wondering the eagle didn't fly up there on its own he was released by a trainer to promote the conservation of endangered birds pretty cool someone named Nova has a question about birds in Flight let's give Nova a call now hi eser hi Nova I got a question for you how high can a bird fly that's a great question birds fly for all sorts of reasons but one of the main reasons is to hunt see this Hawk it's looking for food though Hawks like these can see amazingly well from up high it's choosing to fly pretty close to the ground that way it can swoop down quickly and surprise the animals it wants to hunt though most birds like Hawks are able to fly really high it's pretty normal for them to fly low when they're hunting and that makes sense their food is down there but there are many times when a bird would want to fly high can you think of any before I go on I'm curious when would a bird need to fly high now would be a good time to pause the video and discuss okay you ready I don't know how you answered but you may have mentioned that birds need to fly high to escape danger and you're right there are lots of animals like foxes and coyotes and even larger birds that want to eat them for lunch and flying high can keep them safe I mean when's the last time you saw a flying coyote but that's not the only reason a bird might want to fly high each winter certain types of birds fly thousands of miles looking for better weather or just the right place to build a nest it's called migration and it's definitely not easy it can take some birds more than a month to get to where they're trying to go imagine having to fly for that long I'm getting tired just thinking about it luckily flying high can help with that for one thing it's a lot cooler up there just like you and me birds get hot when they move a lot and the cold air up high can keep them from overheating from all that flapping another reason birds fly high during migration is wind wind can blow in different directions as you go up higher and higher for example down low it can be blowing this way but way up high it might be blowing this way if a bird wants to fly in the direction of those winds they'll fly way up high to get to it that way the wind can help push them along so they don't get as tired on the long trip it's kind of like if a friend was pushing you on your bike so you don't have to Pedal as much oh and get this sometimes birds can even get pushed Along by air that's moving up instead of sideways check this out notice how this bird is going higher and higher without flapping its wings highflying Birds use towers of rising warm air called thermals to get higher and higher without getting tired it's kind of like hopping on an elevator of air you can actually observe Birds using thermals on your own next time you're outside on a warm day watch for birds flying in circles without flapping their wings if they're getting higher and higher they're probably circling in a thermal pretty cool because of energy-saving thermals and the power of their flapping wings birds can fly pretty high when they need to and when I say High I'm not talking about this high or this high or even this High I'm talking way up there I'm serious birds like Whooper swans and even malard ducks have been spotted flying over 20,000 ft mountain climbers have even reported seeing migrating birds like the bar-headed geese soar over some of the tallest mountains on Earth and believe it or not airplane pilots have even seen birds flying way higher than that like a type of Griffin vulture that was flying at 36,000 ft the highest anyone's ever discovered a flying bird humans can't survive at altitudes like that unless they're in a warm plane it's too cold and there's not enough air to breathe but amazingly high flying birds can so in summary birds fly high for a lot of reasons like to escape from predators or to get a helpful push from the wind High flying birds like vultures and geese have been spotted flying higher than the tallest mountains on Earth and even by pilots flying planes like this type of Griffin vulture that was reported flying at 36,000 ft the highest a bird has ever been observed flying that's all for this week's question thanks Nova for asking it now we'll be back with a new episode in a couple of weeks but in the meantime here's some older questions from the question jar you can vote on which one you think we should send out next week you can choose from why do we have allergies how do flowers bloom in the spring or how do bees make honey so submit your vote when the video is over we want to hear from all of you watching there are Mysteries all around us stay curious and see you next week