High-Flying

The altitude record of a bird is held by a Rüppell's griffon Gyps rueppelli, a vulture with a 10-foot wingspan. On November 29, 1975 one was sucked into a jet engine 37,900 feet above the Ivory Coast in West Africa. The plane was damaged but landed safely.

That altitude is over 7 miles high, and is 1.3 times as high as the summit of Mt. Everest.