A young Bar-tailed Godwit flew 13,560 km from Alaska to Tasmania without stopping, in 11 days
Bar-tailed GodwitSource · Global Flyway Network, 2022
Bird facts
Short, true facts about the birds you see, and a few you never will. Each one links to its bird and to where we found it
Today
Saturday 3 October
Flight and migration
5 factsBird fact Nº 1 A Common Swift can stay in the air for ten months without landing, feeding and sleeping on the wing
Common SwiftSource · Hedenström et al., Current Biology, 2016Bird fact Nº 2 A young Bar-tailed Godwit flew 13,560 km from Alaska to Tasmania without stopping, in 11 days
Bar-tailed GodwitSource · Global Flyway Network, 2022Bird fact Nº 3 An Arctic Tern flies about 70,900 km a year on average, from the Arctic to the Antarctic and back
Arctic TernSource · Egevang et al., PNAS, 2010Bird fact Nº 7 Many Ruby-throated Hummingbirds cross the Gulf of Mexico in one flight of about 800 km
Ruby-throated HummingbirdSource · Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About BirdsBird fact Nº 9 Arctic Terns see more daylight than any other animal, following the summer from one pole to the other
Arctic TernSource · Egevang et al., PNAS, 2010
Record-breakers
4 factsBird fact Nº 5 An owl can turn its head through 270 degrees without cutting off the blood to its brain
Tawny OwlSource · de Kok-Mercado et al., Science, 2013Bird fact Nº 6 An Emperor Penguin has been recorded diving to 564 metres
Emperor PenguinSource · Kooyman & Kooyman, The Condor, 1995Bird fact Nº 8 The Wandering Albatross has the longest wingspan of any living bird, up to about 3.5 metres
Wandering AlbatrossSource · BirdLife InternationalBird fact Nº 10 The Ostrich lays the largest egg of any living bird, about 15 cm long
Source · Guinness World Records
Numbers
1 factsBird fact Nº 4 The Wren is Britain’s commonest breeding bird, with about 11 million territories
Eurasian WrenSource · Woodward et al., British Birds, 2020 (APEP4)