Volando van : Relatos de aves viajeras

This is a travel book, starring birds capable of leaping from one shore of the ocean to the other in a few days, crossing a continent in a week, and soaring over a desert in just a few hours. Its main characters are the cranes and geese that cross Europe from north to south, heralding the arrival of winter; the tiny birds weighing only a few grams, yet possessing enough energy to fly thousands of kilometers without pause; and the seabirds that, amidst waves and winds, hug the headlands and disappear for months into the vastness of the sea. Their navigational tools are their travel memory and their ability to orient themselves by the path of the sun, the moon, and the stars, or by the smells and sounds of the world beneath their wings. They also rely on their perception of the Earth's magnetic field lines, and who knows what other methods still unknown today. Until recently, much about these migrations was unknown. Traditional research methods, such as marking specimens with numbered rings or tracking their movements from strategic locations, are now complemented by the use of tiny GPS tracking devices. We now know, increasingly, how far they travel and what they do during the months they remain out of our sight—in other words, the true scale of their epic journeys.