Bar-tailed godwit flew 13,560 Kilometers non-stop according to guinness world records.
The five-month-old bird left Alaska on 13 October 2022, arriving in Ansons Bay, north-east Tasmania, 11 days and one hour later.
They are able to shrink the size of their internal organs to make way for energy-rich fat, which will help sustain them during their epic flights. Airborne during both day and night, they may burn through more than half of their body weight. They can also boost the size of their chest muscles and heart while flying, to aid the distribution of energy and oxygen.
Large groups of gooney birds will land on the water if the waves are low. They will rest for a while. They can spend quite a bit of time soaring into a head-wind without flapping wings.
Can someone explain to me how hummingbirds migrate straight across the Gulf of MEXICO every fall? They’re just so small and I can’t imagine they have a great glide rate considering they are famous for hovering…
Albatrosses can remain airborne for incredibly long periods, often for months or even years at a time, especially during their first few years of life. They are known to stay aloft for 1-2 days without landing. Some albatrosses, like the wandering albatross, can travel thousands of miles without flapping their wings at all. They primarily use dynamic soaring, a technique that leverages wind and air currents for lift, allowing them to glide for extended periods. Some species, like the Laysan albatross, can also sleep while flying.
Keep in mind that “landing” on the ocean is a possibility. Puffins only come ashore during mating season. In the winter, they appear to live on the open ocean.
I have read that migrating birds are able to allow one side of their brains to sleep, reserving the other side for waking tasks. Then they can switch sides in mid flight. Dolphins and other cetaceans do this as well.
I worked offshore for 15 years. Whenever a big storm went through from land, it would carry small birds off shore with it. Little birds that had no business being hundreds of miles offshore and likely unable to get back.
The next day you’d see them huddled under stairs and ledges and anywhere they could hide.
High above would be hawks, or falcons, or owls. All the raptors.
The decks would look like killing fields. Tiny finches and sparrows everywhere. Heads popped off and livers ripped out.
Albatrosses travel long distances with two techniques used by many long-winged seabirds – dynamic soaring and slope soaring. Dynamic soaring involves repeatedly rising into wind and descending downwind, thus gaining energy from the vertical wind gradient. The only effort expended is in the turns at the top and bottom of every such loop. This maneuver allows the bird to cover almost 1,000 km/d (620 mi/d) without flapping its wings.
Considering that birds, when not migrating, tend to sleep with their wings folded up against their torso, does that mean that they’re ‘using’ their wings for the entire trip? I can barely hold my arms out by my sides for 45 seconds, forget 8 days.
Comments
some sleep while flying,
some floating on water while sleeping
Half of their brain is ‘sleep’ while the other one is ’awake’. Then they swap it
Bar-tailed godwit flew 13,560 Kilometers non-stop according to guinness world records.
The five-month-old bird left Alaska on 13 October 2022, arriving in Ansons Bay, north-east Tasmania, 11 days and one hour later.
They are able to shrink the size of their internal organs to make way for energy-rich fat, which will help sustain them during their epic flights. Airborne during both day and night, they may burn through more than half of their body weight. They can also boost the size of their chest muscles and heart while flying, to aid the distribution of energy and oxygen.
They sleep on the wing, often one hemisphere of the brain at a time. Although some birds check in to hotels, with a preference for Ibis.
Common swifts stay on the wing for years at a time. Only land to breed. They sleep at 10,000 feet, one hemisphere of the brain always awake.
Large groups of gooney birds will land on the water if the waves are low. They will rest for a while. They can spend quite a bit of time soaring into a head-wind without flapping wings.
OK, but how can they go without water?
Birds have brain hemispheres that aren’t connected, so they can sleep with just half of their brain at a time. Same for dolphins.
Can someone explain to me how hummingbirds migrate straight across the Gulf of MEXICO every fall? They’re just so small and I can’t imagine they have a great glide rate considering they are famous for hovering…
Look up the Arctic Tern.
Flies from pole to pole.
Albatrosses can remain airborne for incredibly long periods, often for months or even years at a time, especially during their first few years of life. They are known to stay aloft for 1-2 days without landing. Some albatrosses, like the wandering albatross, can travel thousands of miles without flapping their wings at all. They primarily use dynamic soaring, a technique that leverages wind and air currents for lift, allowing them to glide for extended periods. Some species, like the Laysan albatross, can also sleep while flying.
Scientists Finally Have Evidence That Frigatebirds Sleep While Flying
https://www.audubon.org/news/scientists-finally-have-evidence-frigatebirds-sleep-while-flying
According to a new study, the birds can stay aloft for weeks by power napping in ten-second bursts.
Keep in mind that “landing” on the ocean is a possibility. Puffins only come ashore during mating season. In the winter, they appear to live on the open ocean.
I have read that migrating birds are able to allow one side of their brains to sleep, reserving the other side for waking tasks. Then they can switch sides in mid flight. Dolphins and other cetaceans do this as well.
I worked offshore for 15 years. Whenever a big storm went through from land, it would carry small birds off shore with it. Little birds that had no business being hundreds of miles offshore and likely unable to get back.
The next day you’d see them huddled under stairs and ledges and anywhere they could hide.
High above would be hawks, or falcons, or owls. All the raptors.
The decks would look like killing fields. Tiny finches and sparrows everywhere. Heads popped off and livers ripped out.
Albatrosses travel long distances with two techniques used by many long-winged seabirds – dynamic soaring and slope soaring. Dynamic soaring involves repeatedly rising into wind and descending downwind, thus gaining energy from the vertical wind gradient. The only effort expended is in the turns at the top and bottom of every such loop. This maneuver allows the bird to cover almost 1,000 km/d (620 mi/d) without flapping its wings.
Considering that birds, when not migrating, tend to sleep with their wings folded up against their torso, does that mean that they’re ‘using’ their wings for the entire trip? I can barely hold my arms out by my sides for 45 seconds, forget 8 days.
Birds aren’t real. They’re drone spies. They have solar panels built in so they don’t need to sleep, they just recharge during the day.