How: Large wingspan (which gets them up there and keeps them there riding thermals) and a rich-meat diet which makes them strong birds. Their talons are immensly strong, for both killing and carrying prey.
Why (do they fly high): A hunting pattern that includes a very wide territory and fairly large prey. The prey they 'chase' is almost always ground based (or water in the case of Sea Eagles).
Generally it's falcons and hawks that kill other birds 'on the wing', not eagles which are much slower flyers.
You might say that Eagles (and Condors and Vultures which share their 'high flying' characteristics and excellent vision) are selective hunters - that's to say that they look for large prey that are 'ideal' to their purposes. This means that they aren't looking for things that are 'common' (like incescts or mice), but things that are less common such as rabbits and newborn or sick lambs (and in the case of vultures and condors - carrion). Hence they have to look 'further afield' to find them, hence they fly higher to see further.
All animals have an ideal 'energy equation'. The honeyeater works constantly to find extremely high energy food (nectar) and spends prodigious amounts of energy hovering to get it. An eagle on the other hand works at a slower pace feeding for more infrequently, but eating a lot more on each of those occasions.
about 200ft
They fly up to cloud base. I've passed them at around 8,000ft in this country. They then use the thermals as a glider does.
no
When seagulls circle something they are paying close attention to it. Usually it is a food source, and they are waiting for a chance to dive down and eat it.
Seagulls seem to fly a lot of poop.
seagulls
Winds tend to move from opposite the directions that seagulls fly. Because seagulls tend to fly from low pressure cells to areas with higher atmospheric pressure, the direction of the wind generally flows against the flow of seagulls.
YES. A small circle is simply a circle around the earth that does not fly over the direct opposite place on earth that a plane took off from. A great circle goes full circumference of earth, where a small circle does not. Being a circle they both fly in a constant direction.
yes,among the best fliers in the bird world.
To go around something: to sail or fly around something such as the world or an island... Synonyms: orbit, move around, circle, travel around, fly around, go around, sail around, fly round
No, seagulls cannot fly bakcwards. the hummingbird is the only bird that can fly backwards. Seagulls often get caught in thermal currents which carry them backwards, making it seem as though they are flying backwards.
Only hummingbirds can do that with their own abilities. Seagulls can barely glide backwards involuntarily in high winds.