A red knot foraging on the Shetland Islands, Scotland

© Andrew Parkinson/Minden Picture

Resting on a 9,000-mile journey. A red knot on the Shetland Islands

This little bird with its 20-inch wingspan weighs about as much as a cup of flour, but it has the stamina of an Olympian. Each autumn, red knots are known to fly more than 9,000 miles from the Arctic to South America – and in the spring, they’ll do the journey in reverse, for a round trip of more than 20,000 miles. The most famous red knot, known as ‘Moonbird’, is so named because its migrations have exceeded the distance to the Moon. Moonbird was first banded in Rio Grande, Argentina, in 1995 and has been sighted many times since.