World Record Flight

Birds

A common tern has been recorded as migrating 15,600 miles - the longest documented journey of any bird in the world.

The tern was captured by researchers Jan. 24 in southeastern Austraila. The scientists learned the bird had been banded as a chick on an island in central Finland last June.

From the time it fledged until it arrived in Australia, the tern would have had to average 120 miles a day to make the journey, researchers estimated.

Previously, the longest bird journey recored was 13,500 miles by an Arctic tern. Rich Landers , DataTimes