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The Longest Migration On Record: Sooty Shearwaters

The Sooty Shearwater is a gray colored bird, with a 16 inch long body, and a wingspan of around three and a half feet.

Jet Lag Anyone?

Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, were able to tag some Shearwaters, and monitor their migration patterns electronically.

They found the birds flew from New Zealand, to Antarctica, to Chile, to Japan, to the Bering Sea, to California, and then finally back to New Zealand. They traveled up to 565 miles in an day!

Record Breaking

The birds make an enormous figure eight shape over the Pacific, tapping into the dense ocean feeding grounds all over as they go. In 200 days, the shearwaters were found to have covered 40,000 miles. That's the longest migration on record!

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