Imagine for a moment that you're a very hungry bird soaring over 30-foot

ocean swells and high winds with no land for thousands of miles.

How do you know where you're going?

Well, if you're wandering Albatross, you listen. According to a new finding in October's proceedings of the National Association of Sciences USA,

this seabird navigates using sounds below our thresholds for hearing.

For science quickly, I'm Joseph Pulodoro.

The watering albatross.

The watering albatross thrives in the circumpolar band of ocean north of Antarctica,

a wind-swept region that the world's best sailors say has the most inhospitable seas on the planet.

On the southern oceans islands where they nest and brood, one wandering albatross parent tends the nest

while its partner takes to the sea, traveling as much as 10,000 kilometers as it forages for scattered prey.

The bird must eat enough to fuel its turn on the nest, which can be a long time.

Birds might go for perhaps a minimum of four or five days, right the way through to up to

30 days.

Samantha Patrick is a marine ecologist at the University of Liverpool in England and a co-author

of the study.

Wandering Albatrosses actually gain weight on these long trips because they're extremely

efficient flyers.

If you've seen an albatross, it's almost never beat its wings. It's quite fascinating to see them flying in the wind.

When they're flying, their heartbeat is the same as when they're resting.

That's Sophie Digrasach, an ornithologist and a researcher at the French National Museum of Natural History in Paris, who wasn't involved in the study.

With their long wingspan, the longest of any bird maxing out at 12 feet. Wandering albatrosses use wind, air pressure

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