Despite their massive bodies, the Andean condor holds the record for the longest flight without flapping its wings for 5 hours.
Birds can soar through the sky without much effort by gliding instead of flapping their wings. But which bird can maintain this state the longest? This title belongs to a giant creature from the Andes: the Andean condor (Vultur gryphus). They are truly enormous, weighing up to 15 kg, making them the heaviest gliding bird in the world.
The Andean condor is a “specialist” in soaring through the air. (Photo: Lautaro Vidal).
A creature as hefty as this might seem difficult to lift off the ground, but the Andean condor also boasts a wingspan of up to 3.2 meters. Its significant weight contributes to its ability to glide. With such a large body, frequent flapping would consume a lot of energy. Instead, the Andean condor utilizes thermal updrafts to move through the air.
In a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2020, a team of experts from Swansea University and the National University of Comahue presented findings from tracking 8 Andean condors over five years. They equipped the birds with GPS devices and wingbeat recording equipment. From this data, they discovered that the birds only flapped their wings 1% of the time while flying. This means they have taken the title from the albatross (Diomedea exulans), which spends 1.2% – 14.5% of its flying time flapping slowly.
Similar to the albatross, most of the wing flapping by the Andean condors in the study occurred during takeoff, specifically over 75%. The remaining time, they avoided flapping their wings by maximizing the use of wind and air currents. In fact, one of the birds studied flew for 5 hours without flapping, covering a distance of 172 km.
Weather does not seem to significantly affect the Andean condor’s ability to flap its wings. “This indicates that decisions about when and where to land are crucial, as the Andean condor not only needs to take off again, but unnecessary landings will significantly increase the ‘cost’ of the flight’, explained Dr. Hannah Williams at Swansea University, the study’s author.
It appears that it is not just older birds that can make such decisions, as all the birds in the study were still immature. “Our results demonstrate that even inexperienced birds can fly long distances over land without flapping their wings’, the research team noted.
