PLAY PODCASTS
Sleeping on the Wing

Sleeping on the Wing

It’s more like a power nap.

BirdNote Daily

July 24, 20251m 45s

Audio is streamed directly from the publisher (injector.simplecastaudio.com) as published in their RSS feed. Play Podcasts does not host this file. Rights-holders can request removal through the copyright & takedown page.

Show Notes

Some swifts and frigatebirds stay aloft for months. But for a long time, scientists did not know if the birds might be sleeping on the wing. A 2016 study provided answers. Tiny devices attached to the heads of frigatebirds revealed fascinating information: the birds did sleep while aloft, most often one half of the brain at a time. But they also fell into normal, whole-brain sleep and sometimes, even deeper REM sleep. But this deepest sleep came in bursts of just a few seconds — an inflight power-nap.

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.

Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening and other perks. 

BirdNote is a nonprofit. Your tax-deductible gift makes these shows possible.


Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Topics

birdingsciencebirds