Report by Mother Nature Resource
Great snipes get to their migration destination in record time, and Arctic terns have the longest migration but with pit-stops. What bird has made the longest non-stop migration flight? That record goes to the bar-tailed godwit. One bird satellite tagged by researchers flew a staggering 7,145 miles from Alaska to New Zealand in nine days, never stopping for food, water or rest. That’s partly because it couldn’t; the journey was straight over the Pacific Ocean without possibility of any of these things for this kind of bird. Some bar-tailed godwits make a stop on the East Asian coast, however as habitat there dwindles due to human encroachment, there’s been a dramatic drop in the number of these extraordinary birds making it to New Zealand each year.
- Fastest flier on a dive: Peregrine falcon
- Fastest flier in horizontal flight: Grey-headed albatross
- Fastest long-haul flier: Great snipe
- Farthest annual migration: Arctic tern
- Longest time spent in continuous flight: Alpine swift
- Highest flier: Ruppell’s griffon vulture
- Fastest wing-beats: Ruby-throated hummingbird
- Deepest underwater dive by a flying bird: Thick-billed murre