You'll never see an Arctic tern carrying a trophy in its beak, but it would be perfectly justified in doing so: these tiny birds make an astounding 44,000-mile roundtrip journey between Greenland and Antarctica each year. Arctic terns stole the world record from the shearwater after researchers finally created a tracking device that was light enough to use on them. The tern's feat is even more impressive considering how small it is: it has only a 26-inch wingspan, compared to the shearwater's 43 inches.

This map tracks 11 arctic terns, with green representing autumn migrations, red for winter, and yellow for the spring return route. As you can see, there are two major patterns: terns either rest on the coasts of West Africa or Brazil. The prominent zigzag route, which causes some terns to travel as far as 50,000 miles, is not a case of avian indecisiveness--the birds are actually conserving energy by following prevailing wind patterns.