奇速英语

幼鸟不间断飞行13560公里破纪录

It’s 2022 now. A five-month-old bird has set a new record for long-distance migration(迁移) after flying 13,560 kilometers without stopping over a period of 11 days. The old one had been set two years ago by another bird that had covered 12,000 km (7,500 miles) in 11 days.

Millions of birds set for the sky for a long and quite hard journey to get away from the coming cold, feed, and have babies for the next few months. A lot of them travel through distances of over 10,000 kilometers (6,200 miles). This year, a staggering 13,560 kilometers (8,425 miles) was covered by a bird without stopping and setting a new Guinness record in the process. That was hard to believe.

This happened last month when the young bird finished its journey from Alaska to New Zealand for the winter. The bird took a little detour that added 500 kilometers to its first plan of a journey. The five-month-old bird took off on October 13 from the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta in Alaska, followed the usual route(路线) across the Pacific Ocean down to New Caledonia and through the Tasman Sea, before making an unexpected 90-degree turn towards Tasmania rather than New Zealand.

Scientists were able to know the bird’s record flight(飞行) with the help of a tiny tracker(追踪器) that only weighed 5 grams. Eric Woehler of Birdlife Tasmania says that the bird lost “half or more of its body weight,” during the 11-day flight, but it made it arrive at the dry land safely.