A bar-tailed godwit broke the previous record by flying nonstop for 13,560 kilometres between Alaska and Tasmania, Australia. According to the Guinness World Record, the Limosa lapponica, also known by its tag number “234684,” travelled the distance without any food or rest.
“The distance covered is equivalent to two and a half trips between London and New York, or approximately one-third of the planet’s full circumference. According to the 5G satellite tag attached to its lower back, the epic journey started on October 13, 2022, and continued for 11 days and one hour without the bird landing once,” Guinness said, ALCWweb reported.
The long-distance migrations of bar-tailed godwits have made headlines before as well
Bar-tailed Godwit migrations have previously garnered media attention. The previous record of nearly 350 kilometres, set by a different bird of the same species in 2020, was surpassed by the 5-month-old Godwit this year. According to Eric Woehler of Birdlife Tasmania, the bird is thought to have lost “half or more of its body weight during continuous day and night flight.”
“Short-tailed shearwaters and mutton birds can land on the water and feed. If a Godwit land on water, it’s dead. It doesn’t have the webbing on its feet, it has no way of getting off. So if it falls onto the ocean’s surface from exhaustion, or if bad weather forces it to land, that’s the end,” he continued.
These birds often migrate to New Zealand, according to experts. The Godwit, however, turned around and came down on the shores of Ansons Bay in eastern Tasmania, Australia. Bar-tailed Godwits are not the only long-distance flyers. Arctic terns (Sterna paradisaea) regularly fly even greater distances in a single year.