26 August 2025

Every migrating bird has a story to tell about its journey. Here are six species whose stories are amazing.

Northern Wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe) sky-blue route on map.

Northern wheatears (Oenanthe oenanthe) breed in northern Eurasia, northeastern Canada, and Alaska, yet no matter where they breed they go home to Africa for the winter. Research using light level geolocators has found that they make longer journeys than they need to because they’re so committed to their African home.  Those that breed in Alaska travel 9,000 miles. Find out more at Taking The Long Way Home.

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Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea) red-orange routes on map.

Arctic terns make the longest migration of any animal on Earth. They breed in arctic North America and make a round-trip migration of 44,000 miles (71,000 km) to and from Antarctica.  Since they can live 30 years, an individual tern can rack up a lifetime achievement of 1.5 million miles. Watch a video of the actual routes of two terns that migrated from Greenland to Antarctica and back at Longest Migration.

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Amur falcon (Falco amurensis) green route on map.

Amur falcons (Falco amurensis) breed in Siberia and northern China and travel 13,670 miles (22,000 km) each fall to southern Africa. Not only is their migration the longest of all raptors but at their autumn stopover in Nagaland, India the flock can reach half a million birds. See a map + video at Most Spectacular Raptor Migration in the World

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Short-tailed Shearwater (Ardenna tenuirostris) royal blue routes on map.

Short-tailed shearwaters are one of the few species that makes a “backwards” migration from the southern hemisphere to the north. After breeding on small islands near Australia in December through February (austral summer) they leave in March and April for the Aleutian Islands, Alaska and Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia. At the end of our summer, they depart in August to head down the coast of California before crossing the Pacific to Australia. All told they travel up to 9,900 miles (16,000 km) per year.

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Ruff (Calidris pugnax) yellow route on map.

The ruff is a medium-sized shorebird that breeds in marshes and wet meadows across northern Eurasia. During the breeding season the males display at a lek to show off their ruff-like head and neck feathers for the dull looking females called “reeves.” On migration they fly west across Eurasia to the Atlantic coast of Europe before turning south and forming huge flocks at their final winter destinations in Africa. Those that travel the furthest cover 9,300 miles (15,000 km) one way.

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Swainson’s hawk (Buteo swainsoni) purple route on map.

Swainson’s hawks breed in western North America, then travel more than 6,200 miles (10,000 km) to spend the winter at the pampas (grasslands) of Argentina. Their migratory route converges at Veracruz, Mexico where up to 845,000 Swainson’s hawks have been counted in a single autumn. In addition to their long migration, Swainson’s hawks have the unusual trait of completely changing their diet from rodents and small mammals during the breeding season to eating only insects at the wintering grounds.