Photo taken by Kevin Cole ( with Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en )

" Analyzing the recordings revealed that birds at first flapped their wings as they dove. For a short period at their peak speed, the birds folded their wings and drilled down through the air at speeds up to 27.3 meters per second (61 miles per hour).

Adjust for body length, and the world just got a new fastest bird, Clark says. The hummingbirds’ speed reached 385 body lengths per second, easily beating the peregrine falcon’s recorded dives at 200 body lengths per second. (Though the falcon was diving at 70 meters per second.) A fighter jet with its afterburners on reaches 150 body lengths per second, and a space shuttle screaming down through the atmosphere hits 207 body lengths per second."

" When the birds experience the maximum g-forces in their dives, Clark notes, the birds enter the range where human pilots, more vulnerable due to larger bodies and circulatory systems, have to be careful about the risk of temporary blackouts.

Have a look at the awesome video: http://vimeo.com/5078399

Have a look here ( http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/44531/title/Hummingbird_pulls_Top_Gun_stunts ) for the whole article.

The whole article is based on an abstract of the Proceedings of the Royal Society Biological Sciences: http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2009/06/05/rspb.2009.0508.abstract