Sooty shearwater: new world record in bird migration

This 2014 video from the USA says about itself:

A swarm of Sooty Shearwaters on Monterey Bay feeding with Humpback Whales.

Associated Press reports:

WASHINGTON – Sooty shearwaters may not look like much, but when it comes to travel they put marathoners, cyclists and pretty much everyone else to shame.

These gray, 16-inch birds cover 40,000 miles (64,000 kilometers) annually in search of food, the longest migration ever recorded electronically, according to a report in this week’s online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Researchers led by Scott Shaffer of the University of California at Santa Cruz, tagged shearwaters to track their movements electronically.

The birds, which can have a wingspan of 43 inches (1.1 meters), followed a figure-eight circuit over the Pacific Ocean.

They ranged north to the Bering Sea, south to Antarctica, east to Chile, and west to Japan and New Zealand, covering more than 40,000 miles in 200 days, the researchers said.

They said the long trip probably helps the birds take advantage of rich feeding grounds throughout the Pacific Ocean.

Before this research, the bird with the longest known migration was the Arctic tern.

All birds are outstanding in their own way, but some are so extraordinary that they hold records for crazy statistics or amazing behavior. From the very first debate about the fastest game bird in Europe (the golden plover) that sparked the inspiration to create the Guinness Book of World Records to new records being set all the time, birds are always going to be a part of record breaking history – how many of these crazy records do you know: here.