Category: Birds
The Fork-tailed storm-petrel is a widespread and abundant pelagic species. They are the only pure grey member of their family – other storm-petrels are predominantly black in color. During breeding season they form colonies, nesting in the cracks and burrows of cliffs; they spend the rest of the year at sea, picking food off the surface of the water while in flight and occasionally diving in pursuit of prey.
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Fork-tailed_Storm-Petrel/id
Asleep at the wheel?
Can you imagine spending nearly all of your life in the air? The common swift doesn’t have to - it just does! From the day this bird learns to fly, it almost never touches the ground voluntarily - it eats, drinks, mates, and may even sleep while flying. While sleep walking can be problematic in humans, many birds have the ability to enter a state called unihemispheric slow-wave sleep, where one half of the brain sleeps as the other remains alert. This method of “sleeping with one eye open,” is a great way to avoid becoming another animal’s meal, and has led to the suspicion that these birds, who almost never willingly land, also sleep while in flight!
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