The birds are coming! The birds are coming!
Spring is not here yet, but in my corner of the world birds are returning. I hope they haven’t jumped the gun, but it’s nice to hear them as I run each morning.
When it comes to migration, birds are the masters. Here are some mind-blowing numbers about how far and how fast birds go. The farthest run I’ve done this year is 5 miles. I guess I’m not a very good bird.
Bird Migrating Facts:
- Around 4,000 species of birds migrate, or about 40% of all the birds in the world
- Bar-headed geese can reach an altitude of five and a half miles while flying over the Himalayas
- In 1975, a Ruppel’s griffon vulture once collided with a plane at 37,000 feet
- Arctic terns hold the record for the longest bird migration. They fly more than 49,700 roundtrip miles in a year going from the Arctic to the Antarctic and back
- The northern wheatear only weighs an ounce but travels 18,000 roundtrip miles between the Arctic and Africa
- The great snipe flies over 4,200 miles while traveling up to 60 mph
- The bar-tailed godwit has the longest recorded non-stop flight, 7,000 miles without stopping