How long birds can fly at once is the answer that scientists have been looking for, and at present, the longest-flying bird known to scientists is the spot-tailed sandpiper.
Scientists from the Audubon Society in the United States found that a spot-tailed sandpiper with the number "4BBRW" installed with a tracker set out from southwest Alaska in North America, and arrived in New Zealand after 11 days of non-eating, drinking, sleepless flight, spanning a distance of 12,200 kilometers, during which it never stopped flapping its wings, setting a record for the physiological function of vertebrates.
Before the "4BBRW", the "E7" was the record holder, and the scientists in The Port miranda of New Zealand, wore 16 spot-tailed sandpipers on a small satellite tracking device. One of them wore a black plastic foot flag on her leg, numbered "E7" female spot-tailed sandpiper, which subsequently created a migratory bird migration legend. The satellite tracked her journey throughout the journey. At 8 a.m. on March 17, the E7 began operations and flew north over the Pacific Ocean. At 17:00 on March 24 (9:00 p.m. New Zealand time), E7 landed on the beach at the mouth of the Yalu River in Dandong City, Jilin Province, China, and she flew for 7 consecutive days and 13 hours, a total of 10,219 kilometers, without rest, no foraging, no drinking water during the flight, and completed this migration in one breath.
The spot-tailed sandpiper belongs to the genus Hydra in the order Hydra in the order Plover. It is 37 cm long and weighs less than 1 pound. In winter, the top of the head is grayish white, with black-brown longitudinal stripes, the shoulders and upper back are black brown, the feathers are light brown, the lower back, waist, and tail covert feathers are white and brown, the tail feathers are brown, with gray-brown transverse spots; the eyebrow lines are brown and white, the chin and throat are white, the foreparts are light brown, and the rest of the lower body is light brown. The mouth is long and upturned, red, with black tips; the feet are dark brown. The Plover is one of the largest species of water birds, about 115 species, small to medium-sized, often living at the edge of water bodies. The Plover family includes 7 families, including pheasant family, crab plover family, oyster family, anti-billed sandpiper family, swallow plover family, plover family and sandpiper family.
The Plover bird has two extremely important characteristics, one is that they are highly dependent on wetlands (including coastal and inland wetlands), shellfish, crabs, shrimp and worms are their important food resources; the other is that they migrate thousands or even tens of thousands of kilometers back and forth between breeding grounds and wintering grounds every year, moving north from the southern hemisphere to breeding grounds generally from early March to early June, and moving back to wintering places between August and November of each year.
There are about 65 species of quail birds on the East Asian-Australasia migration route, with a total of more than 5 million birds, most of which breed in the Russian Far East, Northeast China and North China, and some breed as far as the Alaska region of the United States.
The breeding period of the plover bird is generally from April to July of each year, and the wintering period is generally from November to March of the following year, and its wintering grounds are widely distributed, from the Yellow Bohai Region of China in the north to Australia, New Zealand and other places in the south. The spot-tailed sandpiper belongs to one of the representatives.
For many animals on Earth, this regular travel is part of their lives, and the purpose is roughly the same - when winter comes, avoid the cold and go to a warm place to find food, and after adequate health, return to a place with less predators and suitable conditions to breed. This activity ensures that they can avoid drastic climate change and live in a relatively stable environment at any time.
In order to be able to travel long distances, they prepare in advance, starting with rapid weight gain, they use every opportunity to feed, to store fat, and some birds double their weight in just 3 weeks, and this fat will be used as fuel for their journey. Their digestive organs will also shrink, while at the same time the heart and pectoral muscles will enlarge, which will provide more fuel for future long-haul flights. It has been calculated that birds weighing 465 to 600 grams can fly for a distance of 9,000 to 13,000 kilometers.
Before the actual flight, it is generally necessary to carry out "flight practice", usually after the birds fly up and hover in the air for 10 to 15 minutes, and then land. Once they're actually going to set off, they'll fly straight up and reach a certain height. The average height of the spot-tailed sandpiper is about 1500 to 3000 meters.
The ability of the spot-tailed sandpiper to fly such a long distance is inseparable from their superb flying skills, and they sometimes flapp their wings and sometimes glide, alternately. In addition, they know how to choose to fly in the downwind atmosphere at high altitude to increase flight efficiency.
Long flights deplete their body fat reserves, sometimes even consuming protein (muscle tissue) to meet additional energy needs. After arriving at their destination, not only do they need to recover their strength, but those primary flight feathers that have been damaged must be replaced, and the flight feathers are essential for such a long flight. This process takes about 100 days. Growing new feathers also requires energy. So they change their feathers twice a year, and you may find that they look different in different places.
So how do you sleep during a flight for days in a row? Scientists speculate that they may allow the two brain hemispheres to take turns resting. Controlled with only half a brain, and able to keep flapping its wings and not getting lost, it is almost like an autopilot, it is really powerful. These professional travelers are all masters of seeing the sky and discerning directions, orienting themselves by sunlight during the day and starlight at night, whether in the northern or southern hemispheres, they are well aware of the changes in the sky.
Of course, not all spot-tailed sandpipers are so fierce, and some of them need to be refueled on their way back from Alaska to New Zealand, and the transit station they choose is generally the vast tidal flats along the Yellow Sea coast, which can provide a rich food for the spot-tailed sandpipers so that the birds that come to feed will be fed in just a few weeks.
The Spot-tailed Sandpiper has also provided inspiration to many scientists, and the American Lockheed Martin Company took inspiration from the Spot-tailed Sandpiper to design a zero-emission hydrogen-powered concept jet airliner Stratoliner.