This is Birdnode.

Out in the North Pacific, an albatross flies in the wake of our ship.

This large bird has a wingspan of about seven feet,

and it's completely at home in the harsh winds of the open ocean.

It soars back and forth above the ship's wake,

sometimes rising up to a hundred feet in the air,

then coasting right back down near the surface.

With its wings just slightly arched,

an albatross can go for more than a day without flapping even once.

So how does this work?

How can it keep up with the boat without flapping its wings?

The albatross knows how to use differences in wind speed

to coast through the sky, a feet called dynamic soaring.

Due to friction with the waves,

the speed of the wind close to the water's surface

is much slower than it is higher up.

By moving from the faster high air to the slower low air or vice versa,

the albatross is propelled forward.

And so, in a series of sinuous loops,

the albatross surfs the wind up and down,

up and down, repeating the pattern over and over again,

as it moves thousands of miles across the ocean.

...