Original photo by © StudioBarcelona/ iStock
You’ve heard of a catnap, but what about a birdnap? Unlike the feline equivalent, birdnaps are unavailable to us humans for the simple reason that we can’t fly, which is exactly when some avians, namely great frigatebirds, doze off.
Frigatebirds can stay aloft for up to two months without stopping, but one thing they can’t do is swim — which is a potential problem, as their flight patterns often take them across the sea. Sleeping mid-flight is key to their ability to traverse those great distances. To prove the long-standing hypothesis that frigatebirds catch some z’s while flying, researchers at Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Ornithology implanted 15 of the birds with electroencephalograms (EEGs) to study activity in their brains.
Oops, incorrect!
It's a factThough some people insist otherwise because they can’t remember their dreams, scientists are in agreement that everyone dreams — usually three to five times a night.
The study offered the first proof that frigatebirds do indeed sleep in flight, but only for about 10 seconds at a time, adding up to a total of 45 minutes a day. That’s much less than on land, where they rest for about 12 hours each day, divided into minute-long naps.
The birds sleep with only one side of their brain while flying, an ability that typically allows animals to stay alert for predators while asleep. Because frigatebirds don’t have any natural predators in the sky, however, scientists suspect they stay partially alert to prevent crashing into one another.
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The strongest bird in the world pound for pound is the black wheatear.
Three states claim to be first in flight.
North Carolina and Ohio had been quietly feuding over the title of “first in flight” for more than a century by the time a third state — Connecticut — threw its hat in the ring. Though the Wright brothers built the pieces of their pioneering Wright Flyer aircraft in their home state of Ohio, they successfully assembled those pieces and took to the sky in North Carolina in 1903.
According to the Nutmeg State, however, one Gustave Whitehead beat the brothers to the punch in 1901 with a flying machine described in a contemporaneous article that has since been found unreliable. The state Legislature even passed a 2014 measure declaring Connecticut first in flight. In retaliation, Ohio lawmakers unanimously passed a resolution of their own that “repudiates recent claims made by state lawmakers in Connecticut that it is home to man’s first flight.”
Ohio declares itself the “birthplace of aviation,” while North Carolina’s license plates boast “first in flight.” If there’s one thing both states — and most other sources — can agree on, it’s that Whitehead’s claims were exaggerated.
Michael Nordine is a writer and editor living in Denver. A native Angeleno, he has two cats and wishes he had more.
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