Don’t ignore the tiny songbirds – they are long distance flyers

Juneau : AK : USA | Feb 16, 2012 at 7:29 AM PST

By prabirghose

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Nature keeps unraveling its mysteries from time to time to amaze us – the migratory songbird of Alaska is one such specimen, a true wonder of nature.

These birds are real tiny creatures, the size of an undernourished sparrow – they weigh around 25 grams each. But they are wonderful long distance flyers and can traverse 29,000 Km every year with ease!!

Biologists have been left awe struck by the performance of these migratory birds after recording their highly superior endurance levels. They spend the winter in Africa and return to Alaska – the distance is 14,500 Km each way. On an average, they fly over 290 Km every day.

A team of biologists had attached miniature geolocators (weighing 1.2 gm) on the legs of 46 wheatear birds in Baffin Islands of Alaska, NE Canada. The biologists discovered that the normal route of the birds covered Siberia, and then across the Arabian Desert, Uganda, and on to Kenya.

The time taken for the outward trip from Alaska to Africa was 91-days and for returning to Alaska it was 55-days.

Wonder what more surprise Nature has in her store for us.

Tiny songbird flies 29,000 kilometres

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image of wheatear songbird

prabirghose is based in Nāshik, Maharashtra, India, and is an Anchor for Allvoices.

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