[Article déjà publié le 31 mars 2024]
Birds are enduring animals capable of withstanding prolonged physical effort to cover long distances while flying. Wild species obviously have the habit of flying than domestic species.
Among these birds, migratory species are those that can fly the farther for longer. However, these animals do not migrate for pleasure, but to survive. When they no longer find enough food in winter, they go to warmer horizons where food is more abundant.
Such a trip is obviously trying for birds and all individuals do not arrive at their destination. Those who achieve it must then find food to recover strengths and prepare to migrate in the other direction on the arrival of spring.
Researchers followed a dozen martinets during their migration
The Martinet holds the world's longest flight record without landing once. Welsh ornithologist Ronald Lockley had suggested it for the first time in the 1970s. However, it took a few decades before other researchers confirmed this theory in 2016.
Researchers from the University of Lund in Sweden published their study in the journal Current Biology. They checked Ronald Lockley's theory by following 13 adult black martinets during their migration.
The birds were equipped with accelerometers and tiny data recorders who were monitoring their flight activity. Light level sensors made it possible to locate birds.
The researchers were able to follow several birds for a few years. They migrate Sweden to the south of the Sahara at the beginning of winter. The results of the study have confirmed that martinets spend a large part of their time in the air.
10 months to fly, this is the record held by the Martinet
More specifically, supervised birds spent only two regular months on earth. They take advantage of this period to settle, reproduce and covered their eggs. Nevertheless, the martinets spent the remaining 10 months flying.
The researchers believe that the birds studied spent more than 99.5 % of their time flying. Some have still arisen sometimes for short periods during these 10 months.
Three of the martinets studied stayed in the air during the 10 months of their migration. They therefore show excellent physical endurance while weighing only 40 grams on average.
Migratory birds that occasionally arise have the same feathers as long-haul
Finally, the researchers were able to differentiate between long-haul and those who landed more regularly by observing their feathers. The birds that have occasionally arrested have not changed Rémiges.
The Rémiges are the largest wings which are directed towards the outside and the back of the wing. On the contrary, the birds that stole without stopping had all changed and therefore owned new Rémiges.
To explain this incredible phenomenon, researchers say that “black martinets have evolved to become very effective steering wheel, with profiled body shapes and long and narrow wings, generating a low cost lift force”.
The migratory swifts feed by crunching insects in full flight. Researchers also think that they are able to sleep while hovering, probably in a descent.
Source: Current Biology
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