These are widespread in North America, so they’re larger and noisier than their European cousins, though some European populations survived being hunted for their meat and feathers. The biggest waterfowl is the Trumpeter swan, and this bird is heavier than most on this list. Now we’re starting to get into the heavyweights. Trumpeter Swan (Wingspan: 2.4 m / 7.9 ft) Weight: 15 kg / 33 lb We’ve given it to Stellar’s since it’s commonly measured as the heaviest eagle in the world and that earns it some points too. On top of that, eagles are really cool, so people naturally want to find the biggest one.Īs a result, everyone wants their eagle to be the biggest, and as such, there’s a bit of a competition going around.Įntries include: The Steller’s Sea Eagle, the Russian entry The Harpy Eagle, Central and South America’s the Philippine Eagle and the US’s pride and joy, both the Bald and Golden eagles (Britain’s entry was the robin, which didn’t make the finals).Įach contender has claims of wingspans of above 2.4 m / 8 feet, and almost all of them are impossible to verify. People love eagles, and many imperialist and self-aggrandising nations have historically used them as symbols of their ego. Now that we’ve reached the eagles, there are lots of conflicting reports. Steller’s Sea Eagle (Wingspan: 2.3 m+ / 7.5 ft) Weight: 10 kg / 22 lb This size and weight, combined with a morphology that doesn’t really lend itself to flying mean that it mostly uses the wind for lift.Īny flapping is short-lived, and this bird will spend most of its time running around hunting prey in the long grass. Not only is it a heavy bird, but it’s also one of the tallest at up to 1.3 meters. It’s about as close to a prehistoric dinosaur as you can get! This one looks like it should be in the extinct monsters category. Secretarybird (Wingspan: 2.1 m / 6.9 ft) Weight: 4.27 kg / 9.4 lb The Great White pelican rivaled this pelican for the largest, but on average the Dalmatian pelican is the bigger bird. Still, average measurements of up to 1.9 m are recorded, and a commonly-cited measurement of up to 2.8 m (from a book) makes this undoubtedly one of the largest birds in the air. There are a lot of lofty claims about the wingspan of this bird, with some suggesting it rivals the animal at the end of this list and many suggesting it beats it outright.īut these seem to have very no evidence behind them whatsoever, so until it’s confirmed, they’ll have to sit at the other end. These are not elegant birds, either, and can hit 15 kg in weight, making them one of the heaviest flying birds. The Dalmatian pelican has a huge gulp and a huge wingspan of almost two meters, much greater than its canine namesake. The biggest pelican is also one of the biggest birds. Dalmatian Pelican (Wingspan: 1.9 m / 6.2 ft) Weight: 15 kg / 33 lb The Eurasian equivalent may hold the record wingspan of the two, but the Blackston’s beats it on average, and since they’re a much smaller population, they deserve the record. It’s going up against its cousin, the Eurasian eagle owl, for the longest wingspan of any owl, with both contenders hitting lengths of around 1.8 meters and slightly above. This is a very rare type of eagle owl from East Asia and Russia. Blakiston’s Fish Owl (Wingspan: 1.8 m / 6 ft) Weight: 4.6 kg / 10 lb Here’s our top ten list of the biggest animals to fly through the air considering wingspan, weight and a little diveristy to keep it interesting.ġ0. Some of these bird weights are estimated from a series of cited reports, others are set in stone, and we’ve purposefully left out very similar species that closely match, so as not to make it a repetitive list of almost-identical vultures, pelicans and albatrosses. This piece considers the largest flying birds by wingspan, but with a mention of some of the impressive heavyweights, too. When dealing with flying animals, it seems appropriate to go more by how well they block out the sun as they descend rather than how many fractions of an African elephant they weigh. There are nearly 10,000 different species of bird, but which are the largest? We’ve talked about the ambiguity of size before: do we go by length, weight, or how much bathwater they displace?
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