Member-only story

Why Bar-Tailed Godwits Can Fly Nonstop From Alaska To New Zealand

How their body changes before and after take-off

Dr. Erlijn van Genuchten
The Environment

--

Picture of a walking bar-tailed godwit.
A bar-tailed godwit (credit: No-longer-here on Pixabay)

Credit: This article is based on the scientific article “Physiomorphic Transformation in Extreme Endurance Migrants: Revisiting the Case of Bar-Tailed Godwits Preparing for Trans-Pacific Flights” by Theunis Piersma, Robert E. Gill Jr, and Daniel R. Ruthrauff . (Full citation and link available at the end of the article)

Nature never stops impressing me. For example, some breeds of migrating birds fly incredible distances, such as the bar-tailed godwit (Limosa lapponica baueri). This large wading bird flies more than 11,000 kilometres (6,835 miles) one way, from Alaska to New Zealand and Australia and back, each year. Some of them can make this journey non-stop, without stopovers.

Bar-tailed godwits spend their springs and summers in western Alaska, breeding and raising chicks on the Alaska coasts. In late summer and fall, they gather together in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta and Alaska Peninsula and begin to migrate to the warmth of Australia and New Zealand.

Map showing where bar-tailed godwits take off, make a stopover and where their final destination is.
Starting point, stopover, and final destination of bar-tailed godwits (credit: map by OpenStreetMap)

--

--

Responses (7)