Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea) should also be called Antarctic tern.
This seabird, a relative of the seagull, spends about three months of each year in the Antarctic region and about three months in the Arctic. The rest of the year the tern uses it to migrate from one end of the planet to the other.
After spending the summer in the Arctic, the Arctic tern leaves in the autumn and heads south. Flying day after day, stopping to eat and resting from time to time, the bird makes a three-month journey to the Antarctic region.
The arctic tern spends the winter (actually summer in the Southern Hemisphere), whether in Antarctica, on nearby islands or even in Australia. At the end of summer in the south, the tern again begins its three-month journey, now heading north where summer will soon begin in the Arctic. The tern is the only animal that enjoys two summers a year!
The Arctic tern travels a distance almost equal to the Earth's total circumference each year.
A typical Arctic tern will travel a distance equivalent to going to and from the Moon (about 800,000 km) throughout its life.
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