If you have ever thought that tiny birds are not heroes I'm sure that's because you've never heard about the little 25g "Oenanthe oenanthe".
It weights the equivalent of 2 sugar teaspoons but that's not a problem when the topic is "Migration".
In fact, this tiny songbird flies, each year 29.000 Km, on its migration route between Africa and Artic and then back.
Scientists managed, for the first time, to track this epic migration routes after placing tags on 2 of these tiny birds. Flying an average of 290 Km a day, these songbirds flew over Siberia and across the Arabian desert, heading to Sudan, Uganda and Kenya, a trip that took about 91 days on the outward trip but 55 days for the return leg.
"They are incredible migratory journeys, particularly for a bird this size," said Ryan Norris of the University of Guelph in Ontario. Think of something smaller than a robin but a little larger than a finch raising young in the Arctic tundra and then a few months later foraging for food in Africa for the winter."
The study appears on Wednesday in Biology Letters, a journal published by the Royal Society, Britain's de-facto academy of sciences.
Birds with larger wingspans such as the cuckoo and albatross are famous for their transcontinental migrations, but this study provides incontrovertible evidence that a songbird can do the same, say the scientists. "Scaled for body size, this is one of the longest round-trip migratory journey of any bird in the world and raises questions about how a bird of this size is able to successfully undertake such physically demanding journeys twice a year, particularly for inexperienced juveniles migrating on their own." from here
"They are incredible migratory journeys, particularly for a bird this size," said Ryan Norris of the University of Guelph in Ontario. Think of something smaller than a robin but a little larger than a finch raising young in the Arctic tundra and then a few months later foraging for food in Africa for the winter."
The study appears on Wednesday in Biology Letters, a journal published by the Royal Society, Britain's de-facto academy of sciences.
Birds with larger wingspans such as the cuckoo and albatross are famous for their transcontinental migrations, but this study provides incontrovertible evidence that a songbird can do the same, say the scientists. "Scaled for body size, this is one of the longest round-trip migratory journey of any bird in the world and raises questions about how a bird of this size is able to successfully undertake such physically demanding journeys twice a year, particularly for inexperienced juveniles migrating on their own." from here
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