Soaring Through the Air - With the Greatest of Wings!


                Can you imagine a bird with a wing-span longer than a giraffe is tall? Can you picture a critter so wide you couldn’t fit him into your living room? What kind of sound would he make? How big would the eggs be? And what about the chicks? Would the babies be hatched with long, long wings already developed and ready to go, or would that be something they’d grow into later? And while we’re on the topic, what kind of nest do you imagine this bird would build? Would it be a hut-type nest like some sparrows are famous for, a bowl-like nest such as the wee hummingbird constructs, or perhaps a big, ever expanding, repeatedly re-used nest such as the Bald Eagle has stunned us with?

                These are some of the questions that have been raised since scientists found such a bird hanging around at the Charleston Airport in South Carolina. Okay, technically all they found were his bones hanging around at the airport. And not really hanging around so much as they were lying buried under tons of earth and rock. The bird has been lying there for the last 25 to 28 million years, ever since its kind went extinct.

                This magnificent specimen, Pelagornis sandersi, a bird that resembles a modern day sea gull, has been identified as possibly the largest flying bird ever to have lived. Its wingspan stretches, from tip to tip, to about 24 feet long. Full grown giraffes top out at about 20 feet. Imagine that! This ancient bird was a full four feet longer than a giraffe is tall! Put another way, for the sake of those of us who don’t get to see a whole lot of giraffes close-up, the average street lamp is often about 25 feet tall. Picture it turned on its side and soaring away! Now that’s a heck of a bird!

                Imagine how it must have looked to see one of these guys soaring on past! Exciting, yet, perhaps, a bit intimidating. A great breeze, maybe. A stretching shadow. Maybe even a cool chill.

                But no great “Whump!” of flapping wings.

                The scientists in charge of studying this guy have spent a good deal of time trying to figure out his flying skills. It’s hard to imagine how a bird that size could have possibly managed.  It would have been too big to take off from a standing position, like a chickadee or a robin. And judging from his legs, he couldn’t have been very good at walking on dry land, so a graceful running start hardly seems likely. Scientists are considering the possibility that a clumsy gallop down a steep slope might have been the ticket. Once the bird worked up enough momentum, he could glide away. That’s one possibility, but I wonder how good he might have been at taking off directly from the water, since he was a sea bird. Ducks and geese do it. No need for a running start or any traction or anything.

                Once in the air, though, the scientists say he was a terrific glider. He didn’t flap his wings. That would have taken tremendous energy. Instead, he caught a draft and simply soared and soared. There are still birds, to this day, who have mastered this avian technique. If a bird catches the right draft, it could glide like that for quite a long period of time – especially with wings like those! If there were enough around, maybe they created their own drafts.

                And that’s actually a good thing, since this was his mode of hunting. He’d glide over the water until he saw a fish or eel that looked good. Then he’d swoop down, snatch his food out of the water, catch another draft and glide back up towards the sky. What a sight that must have been!

                He may have been fast, too. Some calculations suggest he may have travelled as fast as 10 meters or 32 feet per second! You won’t find a person who can run that fast - - much less grab lunch as he goes!

                Many questions remain unanswered, but one thing is for sure. Mother Nature did some of her most amazing work in the long, long ago.

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