
The Common Swift – Anything but Ordinary (2012) - danboarder
http://blogs.bu.edu/bioaerial2012/2012/10/14/the-common-swift-anything-but-ordinary/
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danboarder
"The common swift spends almost its entire life in the air, essentially never
touching the ground once it learns to fly."

"One of the ways in which swifts are able to fly for such long distances
without landing is that they have the ability to sleep while in flight. In
order to be able to sleep while flying, swifts can enter a state called
unihemispheric slow-wave sleep.

During unihemispheric slow-wave sleep, one half of the brain sleeps while the
other half of the brain remains alert."

And from another article[1], "It has no global positioning satellite, no air
traffic controls and no pilots, but the swift is capable of flying at the same
altitudes as aeroplanes with more sophisticated navigational skill, new
research has found.

The birds routinely fly to 10,000ft at night-time, around 4,000ft higher than
previously thought. Swifts are also able to navigate through different wind
speeds while sleeping, automatically adjusting their flight to stay on a
specific course."

Navigation while sleeping... Fascinating!

[1] How Sleeping Swifts Keep To Their Course At 10,000 Ft
[http://rense.com/general50/course.htm](http://rense.com/general50/course.htm)

