This is impressive, but the headlines seem to overstate the journey.
My first surprise was that they fly from North America to South America, rather than Old World to New World. I wrote that off as being my mistake - Nova Scotia to Venezuela certainly counts as Atlantic.
But then, it turns out they (quite reasonably) appear to stop in Caribbean islands along the way. To me, this doesn't qualify as "non-stop from New England to South America".
In fact, the quoted 1700 miles is roughly 25 degrees of latitude, which I don't believe would get to you South America, starting from Nova Scotia.
Still, further than I've ever flown.
Edit: not sure why I was downvoted. Did I make a mistake?
In fact, the quoted 1700 miles is roughly 25 degrees of latitude, which I don't believe would get to you South America, starting from Nova Scotia.
Although not as far, the much smaller (.15oz versus 4.2oz) ruby-throated hummingbird makes a lengthy, non-stop trip across the ocean as well. Their average trip entails a 500-600 mile journey from the Southern United States over the Gulf of Mexico to Central America and then up to 1000 miles more over land. Unlike the warbler, hummingbirds leaving from Louisiana or Texas have no land mass in between, so they're most assuredly going non-stop.
Edit: not sure why I was downvoted. Did I make a mistake?
Maybe it wasn't intentional. I know some people accidentally mash the wrong arrow on mobile devices and you can't take back a vote.
Comments
This is impressive, but the headlines seem to overstate the journey.
My first surprise was that they fly from North America to South America, rather than Old World to New World. I wrote that off as being my mistake - Nova Scotia to Venezuela certainly counts as Atlantic.
But then, it turns out they (quite reasonably) appear to stop in Caribbean islands along the way. To me, this doesn't qualify as "non-stop from New England to South America".
In fact, the quoted 1700 miles is roughly 25 degrees of latitude, which I don't believe would get to you South America, starting from Nova Scotia.
Still, further than I've ever flown.
Edit: not sure why I was downvoted. Did I make a mistake?
Although not as far, the much smaller (.15oz versus 4.2oz) ruby-throated hummingbird makes a lengthy, non-stop trip across the ocean as well. Their average trip entails a 500-600 mile journey from the Southern United States over the Gulf of Mexico to Central America and then up to 1000 miles more over land. Unlike the warbler, hummingbirds leaving from Louisiana or Texas have no land mass in between, so they're most assuredly going non-stop.
Maybe it wasn't intentional. I know some people accidentally mash the wrong arrow on mobile devices and you can't take back a vote.
SW Senegal is 1,600 miles from NE Brazil, so technically one could cross the Atlantic in the distance that these birds fly.
Ah, very well. Easterlies might make the return journey harder!