HARROW: Scientists have long wondered how the Blackpoll warbler (Setophaga striata), a songbird that weighs a mere 12g – about 3 teaspoons of sugar – complete their arduous non-stop flight over the Atlantic Ocean from forests in New England and eastern Canada to South America every year to escape the winter.
By placing miniature backpacks with geo-locators on the birds, the researchers determined they fly an average of nearly 2,540km over two to three days.
“No other bird this size migrates for this long in one go. It’s truly one of the most amazing migratory feats ever recorded,” says ecologist Ryan Norris of the University of Guelph in Ontario, describing “a fly-or-die journey.”
They land in Puerto Rico and Hispaniola in the Caribbean Islands, resting for a couple of days to a couple of weeks before flying to Colombia and Venezuela. University of Massachusetts ecologist Bill DeLuca describes the migration as “on the brink of impossibility.”
The spring return flight follows a predominantly overland route through Florida and up the US East Coast.
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