Scientific team studies world’s fastest flying bird

A two-week scientific investigation is presently underway here in the CNMI: a coordinated study of the migratory patterns of the world’s fastest flying bird, the Pacific Golden Plover (Pluvialis dominica).

Although the Peregrine falcon is often recognized as the fastest bird, this is only when steeply diving and using gravity in its descent. The CNMI’s local Pacific Golden Plover—the dulilili in Chamorro, the ghuliing in Carolinian—flies great migratory distances without gravity, using its own tiny wing’s muscle power and built-up fat reserves to make journeys thousands of miles distant.

A two-person scientific team, Drs. Walter and Patricia Johnson, who are based in Montana, discovered this fact in collaboration with others around the world and described the species in the authoritative volume, Birds of North America.

The two will share their research with interested Saipan residents this evening, April 7, at the Multi-Purpose Center’s main room, from 7pm to 9pm. The public is invited.

Beginning their collaborative work in 1979 on Eniwetok Island, this husband-and-wife team of ornithologists has been studying the Pacific Golden Plover extensively from the U.S. states of Hawaii and Alaska.

This year—for the first time—they are actively leading a collaborative effort with students and staff of Northern Marianas College and the CNMI Division of Fish and Wildlife to learn more about these interesting birds—birds that regularly make their homes for nine months of each year here on our own parks, school yards, golf course fairways, and shorelines.

Where do our birds travel to when they leave the CNMI, usually during the month of May? It has long been assumed that the westernmost Pacific Golden Plovers travel to the eastern Siberian tundra while the easternmost Plovers that winter in Hawaii travel to Alaska, but nobody really knows for sure.

Plovers nest on the Arctic tundra, a vast treeless plain of grasses, small shrubs, and ponds. The tundra encircles the earth between the northern forests and the polar ice cap. During the brief summer in the northern tundra, there are an incredible number of insects. This is probably one reason that birds journey to nest there. Another attraction is its nearly 24-hour daylight. This allows the birds more time to feed, breed, and nourish chicks.

Getting up in the wee hours of 3am and setting nets, the husband-and-wife team, accompanied by a third scientist from Brigham Young University in Hawaii, Dr. Roger Goodwill, and three of his advanced biology students, work each day with a collegial team of staff and students from Northern Marianas College in an effort to catch some of the birds, place identification bands onto their legs, and glue tiny radio telemetry transmitters onto their back feathers so that they can monitor these bird flock’s overseas migrations.

Airplanes flying over the Alaskan tundra may document their arrival on their summer nesting grounds. Spotter scientists on the tundra in Russia will be looking for the birds there, too. Flying some 3,000 miles (5,000 kms), and documenting the times of take off and arrival, these radio telemetry and spotting studies demonstrated the extreme speed of these tiny birds.

The dulili’s breeding plumage includes a black belly and a gold-spotted back, from which it gets its English name, “golden.” The facial markings of the male birds are white and black. Most of the year it has buff-brown feathers, light underparts, a dark eyestripe, and a light eyebrow. Because the birds molt their feathers prior to migrations, the transmitters placed onto them this week will later be released onto the Arctic tundra and the birds will return to Saipan, Rota, Tinian and Guam—their winter territories—unhindered.

Pacific Golden Plovers build a nest of dry grass, dead leaves, and moss. Females usually lay four buff to cream-colored eggs, with dark spots. The chicks hatch in about six days and follow their parents, feeding on insects, worms, and occasional seeds and berries. Young plovers are able to fly in just three weeks. After a few short weeks, ghuliing make the journey back to the Marianas and other faraway lands. Here, they live until the following summer.

To prepare for the long migration, Pluvialis dominica must gain fat to provide fuel for the flight. Many birds will lose one-fourth to one-half of their body weight during the long migrations over water. Most long distance migrants fly at night. They fly continuously, stopping to rest and feed when they can, usually around sunrise each day.

“Please do your best to attend this Thursday evening’s slide accompanied talk and the next time you see a little brown dulili, remember this guy is really a world traveler and Arctic adventurer,” an NMC statement said.