Category: Birds
These accomplished divers eat mainly fish, which they capture either by spearing or with a forceps-like maneuver of their bill. This species winter primarily along the coast of North America, but spend their breeding seasons in colonies of hundreds of individuals on freshwater lakes and marshes. They are known for their spectacular courtship display where they rear up and patter across the water’s surface in unison.
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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