LUND, Sweden, May 26 (UPI) -- Swedish researchers said they tracked a trio of birds flying a record-setting 3,728 miles non-stop with an average speed of 43 mph.

The Lund University researchers said the great snipes, birds native to the northern regions of Eastern Europe and Western Russia, began their journey at lake Annsjon, near Are, in August 2009 and arrived in West Africa about three days later, Swedish news agency TT reported Thursday.


The researchers said the flight was the longest-known sustained travel by an animal moving at high speeds.

"It is almost like a world record," said Ake Lindstrom, an author of the study and an ecology professor at Lund University. "This means that we will seriously have to question the ideas we had of what these birds are capable of."