The Ruddy Turnstone

At first glance, the ruddy turnstone looks barely strong enough to live up to its name let alone to migrate from one end of the world to the other.
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It is little bigger than a song thrush and weighs in at somewhat less than a 250g stick of butter but the wading bird has a hard-won reputation as one of nature's greatest migrating animals.
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Now a technological breakthrough by scientists at the British Antarctic Survey has at last allowed researchers to track the routes taken by the birds and to see exactly how far and fast they fly
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Tiny light-sensitive tracking devices have shown ruddy turnstones can travel more than 16,700 miles (27,000 kilometres) as they migrate from Australia to the Arctic and back again.
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It took four birds fitted with the devices just over six days, with several breaks for feeding, to fly the 4,700 miles from Flinders in South East Australia to Taiwan.
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One of them later managed a 3,850 mile leg in just four days and a further 3,100 mile leg in another four.
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Analysis of the data provided by the tracking devices revealed that during the flight from Flinders to Taiwan and later from the Gilbert Islands to Australia the birds flew at an average speed of 31-34mph (50-55km/h).
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"A higher speed of 65 km/h was achieved during the flight from Alaska to Kiribati, indicating possible assistance by tail winds," added Ken Gosbell, of the Australasian Wader Studies Group (AWSG) which led the research.
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Ken Gosbell