On Fri, 18 Dec 2020 21:44:01 -0000 (UTC), Mike Humphrey
wrote:

snip

OK, a clear win on speed - no bird can exceed the speed of sound, and
given how energy inefficient supersonic flight is it's hardly surprising.

Quite, and all the resources doing so would use and the pollution it
would create.

Birds have made it to 37,000 ft which is the same height as commercial
airliners but doesn't come near the Blackbird.

Because there is no need to. ;-)

But birds have been tracked flying non-stop for 7,500 miles, and the
swift can stay airborne for 10 months (and probably longer if they didn't
have to land to raise chicks).

Yup, amazing (to us). 'Perfectly natural' to them, with what they were
born with.

The largest ever formation of aircraft
(drones) seems to be just over 3000, while the largest recorded starling
murmuration is about 6 million.

Boom! ;-)

It's the same as in many fields - human technology wins easily on raw
power,

Yup, 'human technology', not 'humans'. A human wouldn't even win on
raw strength against a chimp.

Nor would we with on speed or memory:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ravykEih1rE

but struggles to match nature in efficiency and control.

The reason some seem to miss just how pathetic we are (in a 'nature /
survival POV') also think we are at the top of the tree and so
therefore can do what we like with anything else (except as we evolve
ourselves and realise we also rely on these creatures for our own
survival (and not food) that's slowly that's changing of course).

e.g. https://ibb.co/RHWFbVN

To see just how well we will all cope in nature we just need a
worldwide EMP. ;-)

Cheers, T i m