World Migratory Bird Day  Oct 12, 2024

Celebrate our traveling feathered friends on World Migratory Bird Day! Some migrations are truly astounding. The bar-tailed godwit embarks on a 6,835-mile nonstop flight across the Pacific from Alaska to New Zealand. The tiny ruby-throated hummingbird, weighing less than a nickel, makes the trip all the way across the Gulf of Mexico. Migratory birds navigate the globe, instinctively knowing when and where to move to exploit seasonal abundance. The Arctic tern outshines them all with its intercontinental journey from pole to pole, covering roughly 25,000 miles in its annual round trip.

© Maxime Riendeau/Getty Images

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