Fastest Birds by Top Speed
Key Findings
About This Dataset
Fastest Birds by Top SpeedThe peregrine falcon (389 km/h) is not just the fastest bird but the fastest animal on Earth - yet this speed is achieved only in a vertical hunting dive, where gravity does much of the work. That distinction explains the huge gap to the next bird, the gyrfalcon (209 km/h), also a diver. Below them the list shifts to genuine powered flight, where the white-throated needletail (169 km/h) is often cited as the fastest in level flapping flight, ahead of the Eurasian hobby (160), frigatebird (153) and even the humble rock dove or pigeon (149). The pattern highlights two different kinds of speed: the falcons' record-breaking gravity-assisted stoops versus the sustained muscular flight of swifts and pigeons.
Data Insights
Numbers, trends & sources behind this chart
Methodology & source
- Data source
- Wikipedia - Fastest Animals
- Coverage
- 6 entities · 6 observations
- Measure
- Top Speed (km/h)
- Last updated
- 12 July 2026
- Compiled by
- The ANYSTAT team, from the source above
- Values are shown as reported by the source. Nothing is rescaled, rebased or converted — the only changes are thousand separators and decimals shown to two places.
- Entities are ranked highest-first on their value.
Data Sources & References
All external sources cited in this dataset
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