Pratica di Shadowing: How High Can Birds Fly? - Impara a parlare inglese con i video

In 1973, an airliner struck a bird called a Rupel's Griffin vulture, which on its own isn't that weird.

Planes hit birds pretty regularly during takeoffs and landings.

But this collision happened at a cruising height of over 11,000 meters.

That's way above the height at which most birds fly.

Which makes me wonder, what is the highest a bird can actually fly?

Hi, I'm Cameron and this is MinuteEarth.

Birds don't tend to fly higher than they absolutely need to, for the same reason you You don't sprint when you could walk.

It's difficult and tiring.

So we can't necessarily get the answer to this question through observation.

I mean, I guess we could drop a bunch of birds out of airplanes and see what happens, but our AdSense revenue definitely isn't going to cover that.

Plus, we're not monsters.

So let's use our understanding of aerodynamics, scaling laws, and biology to science our way to an approximate answer.

There are two things that limit how high a bird can fly.

Its ability to stay aloft as the air pressure decreases, and on a much more basic level, its ability to stay alive as the temperature and amount of oxygen decreases.

So first, let's figure out which bird could survive at the highest altitude.

Oxygen supplies birds the energy they need to stay warm, but at higher altitudes there's less oxygen available and the temperature is much colder,

so a bird's ability to survive high up in the air depends on how efficiently they use oxygen

and how well they can retain body heat paper measured the oxygen use of a handful of birds and found that, very generally, their overall oxygen use increases with mass.

We can then adjust according to other traits, like how much energy their flight muscles require and how much insulation their feathers provide.

From all of this, we can calculate the altitude at which each bird should suffer from hypothermia.

Let's call this their popsicle point.

If we then compile a data set of flying birds and plug their data into these equations, we can see a general pattern emerge.

Larger birds can theoretically survive at higher altitudes than smaller birds.

There are exceptions, of course, this is biology after all, but our calculations suggest that there are a bunch of birds that could potentially survive above 10,000 meters.

And the largest bird in our dataset, the wandering albatross, might be able to survive as high as 17,000 meters.

But remember, we also need to figure out if any of these birds could actually stay aloft at such high altitudes.

Because the air is less dense the higher you go, less air is available at higher altitudes to push upward against a bird's wings and create that lift.

A bird's ability to stay aloft high in the air depends on its weight, size of its wings, and the shape and angle of attack of its wings.

That's a factor called the lift coefficient.

Combining all of that tells us how much lift a bird's wings should generate in still air at a given altitude.

Simple enough at first.

But while weights and wingspans and whatnot are easy enough to measure, the wing shapes and angles aren't.

Because a bird's wing shape changes as it flies.

I'll save you the long explanation of my rationale here, and just say that this is about where I go out on a bit of a limb.

The lift coefficient for the birds in our dataset peaks at about 1.5 or so, and that's when they're taking off or about to stall.

In other words, when the bird is trying hardest to generate lift.

And since staying aloft is likely a struggle at a bird's maximum altitude, this is probably a pretty good estimate of the lift coefficient at this point.

From there, we can find the lowest air pressure at which each bird could generate sufficient lift to keep its mass aloft, and then use our friend the barometric equation to convert those

numbers to altitudes to estimate the highest point each bird in our dataset should be able to actually maintain flight.

Let's call this their lift limit.

In general, the smaller birds have the highest lift limits.

The hulking Muteswan would struggle to generate lift at a mere 3,800 meters, while the puny Sandmartin should be able to glide at nearly 19,000 meters.

Of course, air moves and it's not uniformly dense at given altitudes, so there's definitely some wiggle room here, which will be a surprise tool that's going to help us later.

But in any case, a bird with a higher lift limit should be able to fly higher than a bird with a lower one.

Now let's combine our lift limit data with our popsicle point data.

We can see that lots of birds, like the missile thrush, can theoretically fly super high, but would freeze long before they got there.

And then there are a bunch of other birds, like the wandering albatross, that could likely survive at super high altitudes but wouldn't be able to actually maintain flight up there.

That leaves us with a small cluster of birds with relatively high popsicle points and high lift limits.

Mathematically, these should be the highest flying birds, and for the most part, they're geese.

The greylag goose, the bean goose, the Canada goose, and the bar-headed goose should be able to fly as high as 8,000 meters or so,

according to our calculations, and this matches up pretty well with what scientists have actually observed.

Like during its migration over the highest mountain range on the planet, the bar-headed goose can reach altitudes of over 7,000 meters.

Then there's the white stork, which based on its popsicle point and lift limit, is our predicted highest flying bird.

It could potentially fly up to about 10,500 meters.

In reality, it doesn't fly anywhere near that high.

But remember, birds don't necessarily fly as high as they might be physically capable of.

But wait, what about the Rupal's griffin?

A bird we know for a fact can fly higher than 11,000 meters.

Our math suggests that it is lift limited a lot lower than that, about 8200 meters.

But this is where theoretical calculations fall short without some additional real-world knowledge.

See, the RuPaul's Griffin likes to soar on thermals, warm columns of rising air that can help birds exceed their mathematical lift limit,

sometimes even thousands of extra meters up into the air.

Other birds are also known to ride thermals, but none of the other high popsicle point birds ride such supercharged thermals, so the Rupples Griffin is likely the bird capable of the highest flight,

with the right thermal.

It might even reach its very generous popsicle point of 15,000 meters.

Turns out, that bird might have had a lot of climbing left to do.

You might have noticed that this video is chock full of all sorts of calculations

that I basically ripped my hair out trying to make sure I got right.

It would have been great if I had a brilliant tutor sitting next to me guiding my learning.

Wait, there is a brilliant tutor.

If you regularly watch our videos, you're probably aware of the awesome interactive learning platform that is brilliant.

Now, Brilliant's lessons are guided by a super intelligent personal tutor for math and coding.

You can now learn hard subjects with one-on-one feedback whenever you want to fill the gaps and build your confidence.

Click the link below or scan the QR code to get started with Brilliant's tutor for free.

You can upgrade to Premium to unlock all courses,

and MinuteEarth's viewers can save an additional 20% off an annual subscription at Brilliant.org slash MinuteEarth.

Thanks Brilliant!

📺 Stesso Canale

✨ Video consigliato

38 frasi

Why Birds Migrate: A Chat with an Ornithologist

IELTS PrepUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

41 frasi

Why are airplanes slower than they used to be Alex Gendler

IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students

158

13 frasi

How Old Can You Get?

IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students

220 frasi

Venezuela's "Islands In The Sky", Explained.

IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students

113

15 frasi

Could Humans Evolve Flight?

Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

58 frasi

Listening part four (THE EXTINCTION OF THE DODO BIRD) @ieltslisteningpro.24

IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students

246 frasi

You Are Alive to Watch the Space Station Fall From the Sky

IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students

81 frasi

Do Penguins Control the Weather?

IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students

287 frasi

Flying the Air Force's $320M Supersonic B-1 Bomber

IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students

159 frasi

Biggest Breakthroughs in Biology and Neuroscience: 2025

IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students

90 frasi

Vocabolario e note di pronuncia per questa lezione

Questo video contiene 77 frasi e 1297 parole da ripetere con lo shadowing. Il parlato dura 6:44. Chi parla va veloce, circa 193 parole al minuto: aspettati suoni legati e ridotti. Solo il 79% delle parole rientra nelle 3.000 più comuni dell’inglese, quindi il lessico è impegnativo.

Vocaboli chiave di questo video

15 parole del video che vale la pena imparare, con pronuncia e significato:

Parola	Pronuncia	Significato
meter sostantivo	/ˈmitəɹ/	metro, contatore
oxygen sostantivo	/ˈɑksɪd͡ʒən/	ossigeno
goose sostantivo	/ɡus/	oca, papero
generate verbo	/ˈd͡ʒɛn.ə.ɹeɪt/	generare
griffin sostantivo	/ˈɡɹɪf.ɪn/	grifone, grifo
calculation sostantivo	/ˌkælkjuˈleɪʃn̩/	conto, calcolo
tutor sostantivo	/ˈtjuːtəː/	istitutore, istitutrice
necessarily avverbio	/ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/	necessariamente, a tutti i costi
potentially avverbio	/pəˈtɛnʃ(ə)li/	potenzialmente
angle sostantivo	/ˈæŋ.ɡəl/	angolo
estimate sostantivo	/ˈɛs.tɪ.mət/	stima
biology sostantivo	/baɪˈɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/	biologia
depend verbo	/dɪˈpɛnd/	dipendere
decrease verbo	/dɪˈkɹiːs/	diminuire, calare
mathematics sostantivo	/mæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪks/	matematica

I phrasal verb che sentirai

Parola	Significato
figure out verbo	scoprire, rendersi conto
take off verbo	togliere
turn out verbo	risultare

Pronuncia a cui fare attenzione

Chi parla usa 15 contrazioni e forme ridotte, come don't, isn't, they're. Pronunciale nella forma breve, così come le senti.

I suoni “th”: mathematics /mæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪks/, mathematical /ˌmæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪ.kəl/, thermal /ˈθɜːməl/, theoretical /ˌθi.əˈɹɛt.ɪ.kəl/, feather /ˈfɛðə/
I suoni “sh” e “zh”: calculation /ˌkælkjuˈleɪʃn̩/, potentially /pəˈtɛnʃ(ə)li/, equation /ɪˈkweɪ.ʒən/, explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/, exception /əkˈsɛpʃən/
Parole lunghe — attenzione all’accento: necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/, potentially /pəˈtɛnʃ(ə)li/, biology /baɪˈɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/, mathematics /mæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪks/, explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/

Come esercitarsi con questo video

Ascolta tutto il video una volta senza parlare e annota le parole che non conosci.
Inizia a velocità 0,75×, fai shadowing frase per frase e torna alla velocità normale quando diventa facile.
Registrati e confronta con l’originale, facendo attenzione a parole come meter, oxygen, goose.

Cos'è la tecnica dello Shadowing?

Shadowing è una tecnica di apprendimento delle lingue supportata da studi scientifici, originariamente sviluppata per la formazione dei traduttori professionisti e resa popolare dal poliglotta Dr. Alexander Arguelles. Il metodo è semplice ma potente: ascolti un audio in inglese di madrelingua e lo ripeti immediatamente ad alta voce — come un'ombra che segue il parlante con un ritardo di solo 1–2 secondi. A differenza dell'ascolto passivo o degli esercizi di grammatica, lo shadowing costringe il tuo cervello e i muscoli della bocca a elaborare e riprodurre simultaneamente i modelli di discorso reale. La ricerca dimostra che migliora significativamente la precisione della pronuncia, l'intonazione, il ritmo, il discorso connesso, la comprensione dell'ascolto e la fluidità del parlato — rendendolo uno dei metodi più efficaci per la preparazione alla prova di speaking dell'IELTS e per la comunicazione reale in inglese.

Tecnica dello shadowing: leggi la guida completa passo dopo passo →

Pratica di Shadowing: How High Can Birds Fly? - Impara a parlare inglese con i video

Why Do India And China Have So Many People?

Why Haven't We Domesticated Monkeys?

Where Did Earth's Water Come From?

The Heaviest Part of a Forest Is NOT What You Think

Why Don't Blue Whales Eat Fish?

Why We Faint (When Other Animals Don't)

How To Kill A Volcano

Three Specific Ways AI Could Kill Us All

Why is it Hot Underground?

MinuteEarth Explains: Cats vs Dogs

Why Don't Snakes Poison Themselves?

The Best Dragon (According to Science)

Why Do Rivers Curve?

Why Do We Have More Boys Than Girls?

MinuteEarth Explains: Microbes

Why Don't Our Bones Keep Growing Forever?

Could This Thing Really Fly?

There’s Really Only One Way To Die

You've Been Misled About The Water Cycle

What I Learned on Monkey Island

Why Birds Migrate: A Chat with an Ornithologist