Long-Distance Travel

Birdwatching

Eighty percent of bird species that breed in North America migrate semiannually. The distance champion is the Arctic tern, which travels from the northern circumpolar region to Antarctica - a distance of about 11,000 miles.

One of the speediest migrators is the lesser yellowlegs. One that was banded on Cape Cod, Mass., was found six days later in Martinique, West Indies, indicating a speed of more than 300 miles per day.

The Pacific golden plover flies nonstop for 2,500 miles over open ocean from Alaska to the South Pacific, with its first landfall in Hawaii.

After such long flights over water, it’s not unusual for birds to suffer from a phenomenon called “fallout.” So exhausted from their long flight, the avians literally fall out of the sky usually along a coast or on an island. Too tired to be fearful, the birds often land quite close to humans.