Arctic tern

The bird that flies to the Moon every year

This little bird flies from the North Pole to the South Pole and back every year — 70,000 km! In its lifetime it flies 2.4 million km — that's 3 trips to the Moon and back. It sees more sunlight than any creature on Earth: it has summer at both poles. The tern sleeps while flying and catches fish from the sea.

The Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea) is a 100 g seabird and the animal kingdom's migration champion: it nests in the Arctic (Iceland, Greenland, Russia) and winters at the edge of Antarctic ice. A 2010 geolocator study measured 70,900 km a year (not in a straight line but along S-shaped wind routes); over a 30-year life, 2.4 million km. It enjoys both polar summers — 2 summers a year, 24 hours of daylight. It saves energy by gliding and takes fish and krill from the surface. It lays 1–3 eggs and defends the nest by dive-bombing — pecking even people on the head. It doesn't pass through Uzbekistan, but its relative the common tern nests in the Aral region.

Fun facts

• In its life a tern flies the distance of 3 round trips to the Moon.
• It sees 2 summers a year — at the North and South Poles.
• Defending its nest, a tern pecks people on the head!