LOS ANGELES — Talk about a red-eye flight. After attaching electronic monitors to half a dozen Alpine swifts, researchers say they were shocked to discover that migrating birds flew nonstop for 200 days.

That’s right, the birds remained airborne for more than six months, eating, drinking and sleeping on the fly, so to speak. Swiss scientists recently published their findings in the journal Nature Communications.

Researchers at the Swiss Ornithological Institute and the Bern University of Applied Sciences captured six Alpine swifts prior to their epic migration to Western Africa.

Each of the birds was harnessed with an electronic monitor that was slightly smaller than a postage stamp. The devices used sunlight to track the bird’s location, and also measured changes in their body position and movement.

When the birds returned to Switzerland six to seven months later, three of them were recaptured and their data downloaded.

At first, lead study author and ornithologist Felix Liechti said he did a double-take when he looked at the data. From late September until about early spring, it appeared the birds did not stop moving.

And how did they eat and drink? Swifts feed on so-called aerial plankton, bugs and spiders that are swept into the sky by high winds. Scientists believe they get much of their water from this prey, but they also are able to skim ponds and lakes while in flight, like swallows, Liechti said.