Category: Birds
These masters of graceful flight can soar hundreds of miles a day, barely flapping their wings as they scan the ocean waters for prime fishing. They feed by sitting on the water surface and catching squid and other small prey with their bills. They are named for the Laysan breeding colony in the Hawaiian Islands, where they are the second most common seabird. Laysan albatrosses can be exceptionally long-lived - one individual was still nesting at 63 years of age, as of 2014.
A Truly Amazing Race…
Many species of birds migrate when the weather changes, but some species take their journeys to extremes. The Arctic tern tops this list: it flies from the Arctic to Antarctic and back again every year of its life! In 2013, scientists tracked Arctic terns nesting in the Netherlands and discovered that they flew 56,000 miles per year! With a lifespan of approximately 30 years, this means these birds fly over 1.5 million miles over the course of their lives! Because the distance they migrate is so enormous, they don’t just get better weather and more abundant food each year, they get more daylight than any other animal on the planet!
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Discover Animals is a web-based educational resource offered by the NAIA
