Alaska to Tasmania- 8425 miles nonstop in 250 hours!

[0TreeLemur]

Just when I was thinkin' that our petroleum powered flying machines are the pinnacle of aviation, this article gave me a reason to reconsider.  It describes a satellite-logged flight of a 5-month old Bar-Tailed Godwit in Oct. 2022.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-feathers-are-one-of-evolutions-cleverest-inventions

The bird was tagged as a juvenile in Alaska.  Flight path shown here:

https://www.usgs.gov/centers/alaska-science-center/news/juvenile-bar-tailed-godwit-b6-sets-world-record

Wow!

[EricJ]

Albatross do that, too, and fly for very long periods without stopping.   Very interesting stuff.

[Hank]

1 hour ago, EricJ said:

Albatross do that, too, and fly for very long periods without stopping.   Very interesting stuff.

But albatross soar. This little guy was 4 months old, and flapped his wings for 11 days without pause! Absolutely amazing! Plus he found New Zealand.

[DonMuncy]

According to my calculations, that figures out to almost 35 mph for his flight. That seems like an awfully good speed to me. Do you think that bird's genes come with proper accounting for good tailwinds.

[0TreeLemur]

13 minutes ago, DonMuncy said:

According to my calculations, that figures out to almost 35 mph for his flight. That seems like an awfully good speed to me. Do you think that bird's genes come with proper accounting for good tailwinds.

I know!  If you look at his course on the USGS page, he was blown off course after departing Alaska, or was taking advantage of favorable winds!

I read that the solar powered GPS and satellite transmitter they glued to its tail feathers weighed 5 grams.   He carried that too!