Even taking into account all the fat they accumulate to make their impressive migration, Striated Warblers ( Setophaga striata ) have a mass of just 17 grams .
The equivalent of fifty aspirin tablets that make a stopover of 2,770 kilometers across the open sea.
The journey
The striped warbler heads south in fall from northwestern North America and travels to the Caribbean, and even to Colombia and Venezuela. For a long time it was unknown how long it was flying over the ocean .
Now, however, we already have the data in this regard, as David Barrie explains in his book The Most Incredible Journeys :
With the help of extraordinarily small tracking devices, scientists have succeeded in showing that they can fly endlessly from Long Island to the island of Hispaniola or Puerto Rico, a distance of 2,770 kilometers across the open sea.
Thus, these birds can complete nonstop flights of between 2,270 and 2,770 kilometers in just two or three days. For this reason, before starting the trip, you double your body mass by storing lipids and proteins, and you can do it in just one week. Later, the moment it begins to fly, a process of atrophy of its digestive system begins .