The eagle that flew twenty years… but he never crossed the sea 
For two decades, a stepparian eagle was tracked by GPS from Russia to its death in the Valley of the Child in Saudi Arabia. Their journey is astonishing: thousands of kilometers through deserts, mountains and multiple countries. But the distance wasn’t the most fascinating thing… but the route he chose.
Despite facing shorter paths above the sea, this majestic bird completely avoided flying over the water. He preferred to surround massive sea bodies, charting much longer paths just to always stay on solid ground.
Why?
Unlike seabirds like albatross or seagulls, eagles need thermal, hot air currents that rise from the Earth’s surface and allow them to plan great distances without consuming too much energy.But over the sea… those thermals are almost non existent. Flying there would entail an unusual effort, with the risk of falling exhausted.
This instinctive choice reveals a surprising evolutionary intelligence: the bird not only navigates the sky, it also reads the landscape with precision to survive.