My Science School

Here's a closer look at some of the birds that perform great feats of endurance by flying non-stop over land and sea in search of food and warmth.

The Arctic tern

The bird that probably sees more daylight than any other creature in the world is the slender, graceful relative of the seagull, the Arctic term. This 33- to 35-cm-long bird makes the most spectacular migration, travelling over 35,000 km every year. It breeds in the Arctic summer and then flies south, reaching in time for the Antarctic summer!

The terns breed on the Arctic coasts of Alaska, Greenland, Canada, Europe, and Siberia, some nesting within 700 km of the North Pole. They raise their young on the abundance of insects and fish during the short-lived Arctic summer when the sun almost never sets. As winter closes in, they begin flying south. After a journey halfway around the globe, they gorge on the small fish and plankton of the Antarctic ocean throughout the southern summer- once more in almost perpetual daylight!

Shining bronze cuckoo

The Arctic term is not the only avid seeker of the sun. Though it may be the long-distance migration champion, there are other birds that perform greater feats of endurance by flying non-stop over land and sea in search of food and warmth.

The fledglings of the shining bronze cuckoo are abandoned by their parents. With no adult bird to guide them; they fly out each March from their breeding grounds in New Zealand.

They accurately follow the path of their parents to Australia, and from there, turn northwards to Papua New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago. Out of the total distance of 6,400 km, 2,000 km is over open sea! One mistake can be fatal, for the birds cannot swim.

Ruby-throated hummingbird

The ruby-throated hummingbird flies 800 km non-stop across the Gulf of Mexico to South America every autumn. Scientists are baffled, because the bird weighs just 3.5 gm, not enough to store so much energy.

What guides birds across such distances so accurately? Scientists discovered in 1977 that deposits of magnetic iron oxide in the skulls of migratory birds may act as a built-in compass. Some believe that the instinct to migrate maybe encoded in the genes, compelling the birds to behave as their ancestors did, even without apparent reason.

Picture Credit : Google 

Many large birds such as geese, ducks, and swan fly in well-defined V formations, especially during migrations. It is their method of conserving energy so that they can fly long distances without taking a break. The V formation also helps birds maintain visual contact with one another. As each bird flaps its wings, it creates uplift at the tip of its wing. This reduces the air resistance for the bird flying behind. Thus the bird at the lead position works the hardest to break through the air. Therefore, after some time another bird takes over the position.

Picture Credit : Google

At a time when we constantly speak about the threat of extinction that several species faces across the globe, one bird species has beaten all odds to return from extinction in the wild. Let's find out more about this remarkable conservation story.

When Kin-Japanese for gold died in 2003 aged 36, not a single wild-born Japanese crested ibis was left in the country. Known as toki, there was little hope for a species that was synonymous with Japan.

Wild toki once lived across Japan, as well as in Russia, Taiwan, and South Korea. Toki meat was presumed to have health benefits, and the bird's feathers were used in everything from dusters to hats. Which meant, the bird was hunted mindlessly. Inevitably, by the early 20th Century, only a few dozen birds remained in Japan most of them on Sado island and the nearby Noto peninsula. At this juncture, the species won protected status. Just when things appeared to get better for the species came chemical fertilizers and For birds that fed primarily on paddy, this spelled disaster, and "by 1981 just five wild toki remained in Japan, all on Sado, where officials took them into protective captivity". In a case of strange coincidence, the same year, as many as seven of these birds were discovered in the wild in China. While Japan's captive breeding programme wasn't exactly successful, China's was. In fact the latter gifted two of its birds to the former in 1998. The following year, the couple reached Japan, within months had their first chick, and made national headlines.

Gradually over two decades, their population grew enough for Sado to consider releasing them into the wild. Today, there are about 500 wild birds, drawing tourists to their delicate pink plumage and distinctive curved beak. Meanwhile, "China's wild population now numbers over 4,450, and a South Korean project released 40 toki for the first time in 2019".

Picture Credit : Google