A tiny songbird that summers in the forests of northern North America has been tracked on a 1,700-mile, over-the-ocean journey from the northeastern United States and eastern Canada to the Caribbean as part of their winter migration to South America, according to a new study.

Scientists had long suspected "blackpoll warblers" traveled all the way to the Caribbean over the ocean but this is the first ever study to prove that. Scientists attached tracking devices to the birds in the summer of 2013, said a study published Wednesday in the journal, Biology Letters.

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"It is such a spectacular, astounding feat that this half-an-ounce bird can make what is obviously a perilous, highly risky journey over the open ocean. Now maybe that will help us focus attention on what could be driving these declines," said Chris Rimmer of the Vermont Center for Ecostudies, one of the authors.

The blackpoll warblers are known to bulk up by eating insects near their coastal departure points before heading south, and some in parts of North America, but their numbers have been declining.

Andrew Farnsworth, a research associate at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology who specializes in migration biology and was not involved in the study, said knowing how the blackpoll warblers migrate helps scientists know more about the implications of changing climate.

"What happens if birds aren't able to fuel sufficiently to make this kind of flight because of habitat fragmentation and habitat loss in New England or the Canadian Maritimes? How much energy do they need and if they don't get it, what happens?" asked Farnsworth.

There are a number of birds that fly long distances over water but this warbler is different because it lives in forests. Mostly, other birds fly across Mexico and Central America.

In the summer of 2013, scientists tagged 19 blackpolls on Vermont's Mount Mansfield and 18 in two locations in Nova Scotia. Of those, three were recaptured in Vermont with the tracking device attached and two in Nova Scotia.

TagsScientists Find Tiny Songbird that Migrates 1500 Miles Nonstop, Tiny Songbird, bird, Ocean