Re: feathers (and one bird)

On 2024-05-11 4:30 PM, FromTheRafters wrote:

JTEM presented the following explanation :

  DB Cates wrote:
>

"In October 2022 a bird with the code name B6 set a new world record that few people outside the field of ornithology noticed. Over the course of 11 days, B6, a young Bar-tailed Godwit, flew from its hatching ground in Alaska to its wintering ground in Tasmania, covering 8,425 miles without taking a single break. For comparison, there is only one commercial aircraft that can fly that far nonstop, a Boeing 777 with a 213-foot wingspan and one of the most powerful jet engines in the world. During its journey, B6—an animal that could perch comfortably on your shoulder—did not land, did not eat, did not drink and <i>did not stop flapping</i>, sustaining an average ground speed of 30 miles per hour 24 hours a day as it winged its way to the other end of the world.

>
It's not hard to imagine them tagging a bird, tracking it with GPS,
but to know that it was continuously flapping it's wings?

 https://academic.oup.com/icb/article/48/1/134/627446
 

I suppose with a rigorous enough definition of "continuous beating" they don't. But they are physically incapable of long gliding like an albatross but it is likely they use continuous beating with occasional short pauses, a common thing. But they know it never stopped or fed (continuous tracking) and it can't land on water without dying (can't feed and can't take off).
The only time I've ever seen a shorebird gliding is when it is coming in for a landing.
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Don Cates ("he's a cunning rascal" PN)