Longest Nonstop Bird Migration
From National Geographic News:
A female shorebird was recently found to have flown 7,145 miles (11,500 kilometers) nonstop from Alaska to New Zealand—without taking a break for food or drink. It’s the longest nonstop bird migration ever measured, according to biologists who tracked the flight using satellite tags. The bird, a wader called a bar-tailed godwit, completed the journey in nine days. In addition to demonstrating the bird’s surprising endurance, the trek confirms that godwits make the southbound trip of their annual migration directly across the vast Pacific rather than along the East Asian coast, scientists said.
Previously in the Proceedings: The Arrow Stork of Mecklenburg
[See Neatorama]
October 3rd, 2007 at 7:16 am
Amazing!
October 8th, 2007 at 9:18 pm
Bless her heart. I’d cling to her legs if she’d fly half that distance, and never let go…
Here is the basis for a new religion if ever there was one!
November 14th, 2007 at 9:08 pm
Here in Hawaii, we have the Pacific golden plover. They migrate south for the winter from Siberia and Alaska, also non-stop in about 5 days (see Biology and Tracking at http://www.hawaiinaturecenter.org/kolea/).
They always return to the same winter and summer “territories,” so their navigation is good. But more incredibly, fledgelings are left by the parents in the summer, and they fly south by themselves for the winter. I would like to see research to tell whether they find land by navigation of some sort or by pure chance.