Wednesday, February 15, 2012

The Migration of the Northern Wheatear

BBC Radio 3 (get him!) news reported today that the Northern Wheatear has a migration of about 18,640 miles!

The birds weigh 25g and travel from sub Saharan Africa to their Artic breeding grounds.

Scientists fitted birds in Canada and Alaska with 1.4g tracking devices. The deviecs recorded the bird's position twice a day for 90 days. The trackers that the team managed to recover showed that individual wheatears spent the winter in northern parts of sub-Saharan Africa.

The Alaskan birds travelled almost 9,000 miles each way averaging 180miles per day.

Now you have to admit that is impressive.

1 comment:

ShySongbird said...

It always amazes me that delicate looking little birds make such long and arduous journeys, very humbling I think.

I enjoyed your last concert photos, especially the Heron.

Blog Status

If you want to use any photos on this blog please see this link.