Just tonight I watched an excellent documentary called 'Flight: The Genius of Birds'. Since we just posted about the hummingbird earlier, I thought this would go well with the bird theme!

     As we mentioned earlier, humming birds can fly forward, backward, and hover. How do they do this though? For flying forward they beat their winds up and down very quickly. Hovering they moved their wings in a figure eight pattern, and backward flying they move their winds in a circular pattern above their heads. Did you know that can rotate their wings 180 degrees? Amazing little birds they are indeed.
    Starlings are quite amazing birds too. Even though farmers may not like them so much, many people including Dylan Winter, a cinematographer find them fascinating. On their way back to their chosen roosts they fly in amazing formations, often called 'ballet of the air'. Groups of thousands of birds twist and turn moving gracefully through the sky, never running into each other. How do they do it? Well, it has only been partially explained so far. Studies show that they estimate the distance between them, and 6-7 other birds around them. Every time a bird moves up or down, it makes a chain reaction throughout all the other birds. This is much more complicated than the tricks airplanes can do.
    The Arctic Tern, is a bird many of you may have heard of. It has the farthest migration patterns than any other bird. They fly almost constantly for nine months, traveling around three hundred miles a day! They also live for about 20 years, and the total distance they travel would be the same as traveling to the moon and back three times in their lifetime. They are surely amazing, with their built in GPS'.
 
    Evolution would say that birds evolved from dinosaurs. Small dinosaurs evolved feathers and wings, and leapt from branch to branch, and flapped their arms to catch flying insects.
   Look at an airplane. It's very complicated with all its machinery, and systems! Would you have any trouble believing that it was created? Birds, are so much more complex than airplanes, and much more efficient. Why do people have trouble believing that they are created? Could it be because they don't want to?

  When thou seest an eagle, thou seest a portion of genius; lift up thy head! William Blake

 
    I hope you enjoyed these facts! If you would like to learn more about the DVD check out this link: http://www.flightthegeniusofbirds.com/

Sincerely, Rachel