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The full question is here: There are two descriptions of the Great Flood in the Bible. On one hand: Genesis. 7: 11 8:14 and 7:17 8:6-12 The flood lasted 40 days and Noah has sent the bird three times always waiting 7 days so the flood lasted 61 days. The question is: how can this contradiction be explained?

Thank you for your question.

8:6 And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made:

Comes after verse 5:

5 And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.

In context the forty days of verse six commences in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, when the tops of the mountains were seen.

It does not, as you suggest, refer back to the forty days in 7:17. Neither are there two flood descriptions; rather the description is continuous.

Reference	Noah’s Age	Day/Month	Day of Flood	Event
7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.	600	17th / 2nd	0	Flood begins
7:12 And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. 17 And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth.	600	27 / 3rd	40	Rain stops
7:24 And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days. 8:4 And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.	600	17th / 7th	150	Ark grounds on a mountain
8:5 And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.	600	1st / 10th	224	Mountains become visible
8:6 And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made: 7 And he sent forth a raven…	600	10th / 11th	264	Flight of the raven
8:8 Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground; 9 But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark,	600	17th / 11th	271	1st flight of the dove
8:10 And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; 11 And the dove came in to him in the evening…	600	24th / 11th	278	2nd flight of the dove
8:12 And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more.	600	1st / 12th	285	3rd flight of the dove
8:13 And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry.	601	1st / 1st	314	Waters receded
8:14 And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried. 15 And God spake unto Noah, saying, 16 Go forth of the ark… God bless,	601	27th / 2nd	371	Earth completely dry