All birds are outstanding in their own way, but some are so extraordinary that they hold records for crazy statistics or amazing behavior. From the very first debate about the fastest game bird in Europe (the golden plover) that sparked the inspiration to create the Guinness Book of World Records to new records being set all the time, birds are always going to be a part of record breaking history – how many of these crazy records do you know?

Physical Bird Records

Some birds become part of the record books just because of their extraordinary physical features, such as…

• Tallest Bird
  The common ostrich is the world's tallest bird, stretching up to an amazing nine feet tall with its long legs and neck.
   
• Smallest Bird
  The tiny bee hummingbird is the world's smallest bird, measuring just two inches across its wingspan and weighing less than one-tenth of an ounce. Females are slightly larger.
   
• Longest Wingspan
  The wandering albatross has the world's widest wings, with a wingspan stretching between 8-12 feet in length.
   
• Longest Bill
  Two birds share this honor. The Australian pelican's 13-19" bill is the overall longest, but the sword-billed hummingbird has a 4-inch bill, the longest relative to its own body size – its bill is actually longer than its body!
   
• Most Feathers
  The tundra swan is the bird with the most feathers, with more than 25,000 feathers making up its plumage. In contrast, a typical backyard bird has 1,500-3,000 feathers.
   
• Largest Egg
  The largest egg ever laid by a bird was an ostrich egg laid on a farm in Sweden in 2008. The egg weighed 5 pounds, 11 ounces – more than 45 chicken eggs.
   

• Smallest Egg
  The tiniest bird eggs come from the vervain hummingbird and measure just one-third of an inch long and weigh only one-third of a gram each.
   
• Heaviest Flying Bird
  The kori bustard is the world's heaviest bird that can still fly; the heaviest kori bustard weighed in at 41 pounds, though the great bustard may have similarly heavy individuals.
   
• Longest Toes
  Birds are usually known for their wings, but the toes of the northern jacana are worth noting as the longest of any bird compared to its overall size. These tropical waders have 3-inch toes, but the whole bird is only 9-10 inches long.

Bird Behavior Records

For some birds, what they do is even more remarkable than their physical characteristics, which brings these bird record breakers into the history books…

• Fastest Level Flight
  Birds can be fast fliers, and none is faster than the gray-headed albatross. This seabird has been clocked at 79 miles per hour, a speed the bird held for more than eight hours through an Antarctic storm.
   
• Fastest Dive
  No bird beats the peregrine falcon as a swift hunter. In a steep hunting dive, these raptors regularly reach speeds over 150 miles per hour, and the fastest recorded dive was 238 miles per hour.
   
• Fastest Wing Beats
  It's no surprise that hummingbirds have the fastest wings, but the ruby-throated hummingbird beats them all with 200 beats per second during its courtship displays.
   
• Most Mimicry of Other Birds
  Many birds are accomplished mimics, but none more so than the marsh warbler, which has been recorded with a repertoire of up to 80 other birds it successfully mimics as it defends its territory and seeks to attract a mate.
   
• Strangest Mimicry
  It's always amazing when a bird makes a non-bird sound, and none does so better than Australia's superb lyrebird, which has mimicked phone ring tones, camera shutter noises, chainsaws, car alarms, video games and construction noises with startling accuracy.
   
• Longest Overall Migration
  Some birds are great travelers, and the Arctic tern gets around the most with a pole-to-pole annual migration that can reach up to 50,000 miles for each yearly round trip.
   
• Longest Nonstop Migration
  For a nonstop trip, no birds beat the bar-tailed godwit. This amazing shorebird was tracked for a 7,145-mile nonstop flight in 2007, making the journey from Alaska to New Zealand without stopping for food, water or rest along the way.
   
• Highest Migration
  The efficient lungs and broad wings of the bar-headed goose have helped it secure the record for the highest migration, soaring more than 33,000 feet high as it migrates above the Himalayan Mountains.
   
• Shortest Migration
  Not all birds are extensive travelers, and the blue grouse holds the record for the shortest seasonal migration, just 1,000 feet from higher elevation pine forests in the winter to lower elevation deciduous forests in the summer.
   
• Deepest Underwater Dive
  Piscivorous birds are often amazing swimmers and divers, and the popular emperor penguin holds the record for the deepest dive, reaching 1,751 feet deep in the Ross Sea off Antarctica.
   
• Most Communal Nest
  Colonial birds are common, but the sociable weaver is uncommonly colonial with communal nests that may reach 26 feet wide and six feet high, and will be used by up to 300 nesting pairs at once.
   
• Oldest Living Wild Bird
  Bird lifespans can be hard to estimate, but Wisdom is a laysan albatross who holds the record as the oldest living wild bird; in 2014, the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge nester celebrated her sixty-third birthday.
   
• Biggest Population
  The world's most populous bird is the red-billed quelea, an African finch that has an estimated population of 3-10 billion individual birds, a number that holds steady despite regular culling in agricultural areas.

When Records Change

While it can be a very unique experience to encounter record-breaking birds, it is also important to remember that these are only the records that have been observed and recorded. Records change over time as more birds are studied and enjoyed, and as we learn more about our feathered friends, we are sure to learn even more about how amazing they can be.

Photo – Australian Pelican © macinate