"The team calculated that for a shearwater flying 1,000 kilometers east in a day, about the maximum the scientists observed, the average error would be roughly 7 degrees. If the bird keeps checking where it is, that adds only 5 kilometers to the trip."

An error of around half a percent? That's super impressive.

I really doubt that a human (relatively familiar with reading maps) could get to their target destination without backtracks/detours adding to more than 5k. Perhaps a trained survivalist/ranger, but any average person who only knows how to read a paper map? No way.