expert birder

The godwit, while perhaps not as well known as some of its avian cousins--it's no beauty queen like the swan, nor cheery like the robin redbreast--finally has its own claim to fame. One enduring female godwit recently broke a record for the longest non-stop flight by a bird ever documented, flying an entirely uninterrupted 11,680 kilometers (over 7,257 miles). She took off from a breeding ground in Alaska and her flight lasted eight days, during which she did not stop for food, water, or rest until reaching her destination half-way around the world: New Zealand.

Scientists have known for years that map sense stems from the magnetite in birds’ beaks, which measures the strength of the Earth’s magnetic field so they recognize home when they get there. But how do they know which direction home is?

Some ornithologists contend that variations in the songs of birds delineate different species. Expert birder Brett Whitney, featured in "The Man With 10,000 (Bird) Songs in His Head" (Dec. '03), says there may be as many as 50,000 different species of birds -- other scientists assert the number may be one-fifth as large.