While reviewing my news stories, I came across this amazing story about the longest annual bird migration ever recorded:
A flock of sooty shearwaters, weighing no more than 2 pounds, that traveled some 46,000 miles. Equally as amazing to me is that these birds could travel nearly 700 miles a day. Absolutely extraordinary!
Scientists tagged 33 sooty shearwaters electronically to monitor various data, including air temperatures, their position and how far they dove into the sea for food. Nineteen of the 20 tags were recovered, providing full records of their long-distance journeys, from New Zealand to Antarctica, Japan, Alaska and even South America.
Sooty shearwaters are small, but they're certainly tough. When searching for fish, squid and krill for food, the birds dove an average of 46 feet, and some went as deep as 225 feet.