Bar-tailed godwit

In October 2022 a five-month-old bar-tailed godwit carrying a satellite tag flew from Alaska to Tasmania in about 11 days without landing. The trip covered at least 13,560 km and beat the previous tagged record of 13,050 km, set by an adult male in 2021.

The distance is a minimum worked out from satellite tracking.

Context

Bar-tailed godwits breed in Arctic Alaska and spend the southern summer in New Zealand and Australia. Researchers fit birds with small satellite tags and follow their routes, which is how the nonstop crossing of the Pacific was discovered. An earlier tagged flight in 2007 covered about 11,700 km, so the 2022 journey of roughly 13,560 km set a new mark by a wide margin.

The flight is possible because of heavy preparation. Before leaving, godwits feed intensively and store large amounts of fat, and their digestive organs shrink while flight muscles and the heart grow. During the crossing they cannot feed, drink or rest on the water, so the bird flies through day and night for about a week and a half.

The distance is a minimum because satellite fixes arrive at intervals, and the real path, including detours around weather, was probably a little longer. It is also a record for a tagged individual rather than every bird alive, and it was set by a juvenile making the trip for the first time, which suggests the ability is largely inherited rather than learned from older birds.