Small songbirds complete extraordinary nonstop flights across the Atlantic Ocean

Using backpack flight recorders, scientists have discovered that the blackpoll warbler songbirds are able fly nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean. These tiny songbirds, weighing about 4.2 ounces (119 grams), were able to complete the flight without a stop for over 1,410 to 1,721 miles, as recorded by the geolocators according to the journal Biology Letters. This irrefutable evidence ended the 50-year mystery and debate on whether the songbirds had stop overs on land before completing their migration.

span style="line-height: 15.8599996566772px;">MUNTINLUPA, PHILIPPINES (Catholic Online) - The blackpoll warbler songbirds (Setophaga striata) migrate every autumn from Vermont and Nova Scotia in New England to Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Greater Antilles islands in South America.

After their land break before crossing the ocean, they will continue the journey all the way up to the northern parts of Venezuela and Colombia.

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Their journey is such an amazing feat because of the risks they experience for being as small as a tennis ball. Compared to the albatross, sandpiper and the gull, which all have broad and long wings enabling them to take rests on top of the waters, the songbird is seen as extra unique. Songbirds would drown if they got into the water.

"We're really excited to report that this is one of the longest non-stop over-water flights ever recorded for a songbird, and finally confirms what has long been believed to be one of the most extraordinary migratory feats on the planet," said Bill DeLuca from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

However, the geolocators used are not big enough to transmit the data in real time, according The Telegraph. The data used in the analysis was recovered from the birds they located, three of birds in Vermont and two units of data from the group in Nova Scotia.

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