This archive report was first published on 7 May 2020.
Published on May 7, 2020, a remarkable story of a bird's incredible journey has left many in awe. A bird, nicknamed Onon, has flown 8,000 kilometres in just five days from Kenya to China, the origin of the pandemic.
According to Birding Beijing, a Chinese birding website, the bird was tracked using a global location sensor (GLS) and departed from Kenya on April 29. It crossed the Arabian Sea, the India subcontinent, the Himalayas, and finally landed in China on May 4.
Onon's journey has excited people online, with many praising its spirit of adventure in the midst of despair. The bird's path was reconstructed using data from a geolocator, a small tracking device fitted to the bird's leg.
Kenya is home to a rich avifauna diversity, with around 1,100 bird species recorded. Of these, about 800 are year-round residents, 60 are afro-tropical migrants, and 170 are palaearctic migrants that journey from Eurasia each winter.
Kenya's birding sector is one of the best in the world, with short birding trips recording 300 to 600 different varieties and more than 120 at a particular site on a single day, according to Magical Kenya, the official travel and tourism guide of the Kenya Tourism Board.
