hello SGland! today has been nice, i had leftover pizza for brekkie and went to yooni, where i learnt about a crazy bird that has to spend its entire life inflight.
It's called a Friggate bird, and if it lands, it can never take off again, as it has exceptionally long wings and short legs. If it stands on the ground, its wings are already at floor-level, so it cant flap them in order to take off. It also needs to have a very small body mass to minimise the energy needed for all this constant flying, so it does without the gland all other birds have to produce its waterproof coating. As its not waterproof, it also cant land in water, so it flys for its whole life, which is a long one, except for when it is laying eggs. To do this, it nests in the top of very tall trees so it can just fall out of the tree and start gliding. Thing is, to sleep, these birds fly upwards in thermals to around 30,000 ft and then sleep as they glide down for about 2hrs, then wake up before they hit land/sea and fly back up to do it all again. How do they know when to wake up? Maybe its a pressure sensor they have? Also, mating in mid-air must be a bit tiresome. You may also wonder how/what they eat, and according to the amazing Dr Nimmo, they eat flying fish in mid-air, and as they are the only living organism to feed this way, they have no competition for food, still hardly a thriving species though.
Yeah well anyway, i met some friends today for a picnic at lunchtime, its annoying though that for me to join in their lunchtime activities, i have to skip my excos class. Lizzie McGuire is on, must dash.
It's called a Friggate bird, and if it lands, it can never take off again, as it has exceptionally long wings and short legs. If it stands on the ground, its wings are already at floor-level, so it cant flap them in order to take off. It also needs to have a very small body mass to minimise the energy needed for all this constant flying, so it does without the gland all other birds have to produce its waterproof coating. As its not waterproof, it also cant land in water, so it flys for its whole life, which is a long one, except for when it is laying eggs. To do this, it nests in the top of very tall trees so it can just fall out of the tree and start gliding. Thing is, to sleep, these birds fly upwards in thermals to around 30,000 ft and then sleep as they glide down for about 2hrs, then wake up before they hit land/sea and fly back up to do it all again. How do they know when to wake up? Maybe its a pressure sensor they have? Also, mating in mid-air must be a bit tiresome. You may also wonder how/what they eat, and according to the amazing Dr Nimmo, they eat flying fish in mid-air, and as they are the only living organism to feed this way, they have no competition for food, still hardly a thriving species though.
Yeah well anyway, i met some friends today for a picnic at lunchtime, its annoying though that for me to join in their lunchtime activities, i have to skip my excos class. Lizzie McGuire is on, must dash.