"Record-Shattering Birds Stay In Air For 10 Months: Study"

"A small, dark-feathered bird known as the common swift flies for 10 months on end without ever landing, the longest time spent aloft of any known bird, scientists said Thursday.

The findings in the US journal Current Biology confirmed a 46-year-old hypothesis, first offered by British researcher Ron Lockley, that these birds spend most of their lives in the air.

A team of researchers from Sweden fitted tiny backpacks on 13 of the brownish-black birds.

Weighing only one gram, these microdata logs recorded whether the birds were in the air or not, their acceleration, and where they had been at any given time."

AFP had the story October 27, 2016.

Source: AFP, 10/28/2016