Few birds spend their entire lives in the same place; most of them take flight to find a reliable source of food, to start a family, or to survive the changing seasons.
Some migrations are short, while others cover vast distances. Because migrating birds spend several weeks flying over oceans and continents from one end of the planet to the other, a missed turn can be fatal.
However, in 2022, one juvenile bird made history with an unexpected turn.
A bar-tailed godwit (Limosa lapponica), known as “234684,” flew 13,560 kilometers (8,435 miles) from Alaska to Tasmania, Australia, without stopping for food or rest, breaking the record for the longest non-stop migration by a bird.
The distance traveled is equal to two and a half trips between London and New York, or roughly one-third of the planet’s circumference.
According to the 5G satellite tag attached to its lower back, the epic journey began on October 13, 2022, and lasted 11 days and one hour, with no landings.
This is not the first time bar-tailed godwits have made headlines for their epic migrations. This five-month-old bird broke the previous record, set by another species in 2020, by more than 350 kilometers (217 miles). That godwit had out-flew another in 2007, flying 11,500 kilometers (932 miles).
Although most birds migrate long distances in search of food and warmth, some have the ability to physically transform to adapt to changing environmental conditions.
They have the ability to drastically alter their bodies and metabolism by shrinking the size of their internal organs, rapidly gaining weight and burning through fat reserves, barely sleeping, and a variety of other superpower-like abilities.
Godwits, in particular, make room for fats rich in energy by absorbing 25% of the tissue that makes up their digestive tract, liver, and kidneys. This is made possible by autophagy (“self-eating”), a biological process that allows the body to recycle parts of itself as and when needed.
Mid-flight, godwits can also enlarge their hearts and chest muscles to provide more energy and oxygen to these areas.
However, these extraordinary abilities have some drawbacks. Because godwits lack the energy required to fly long distances, the physical changes make them more vulnerable to both natural and man-made hazards.
Our new record-breaking godwit was lucky to make it across the vast Pacific Ocean and numerous islands, including New Caledonia and Vanuatu, where it appeared to have passed up the opportunity to refuel.
The bird probably lost “half or more of its body weight during continuous day and night flight,” according to Birdlife Tasmania convenor Eric Woehler.
“Short-tailed shearwaters and mutton birds can land and feed on the water. If a godwit falls into water, it drowns. It has no way of escaping because it lacks the webbing in its feet. So if it exhausts itself and falls to the ocean’s surface, or if bad weather forces it to land, that’s the end.”
Godwits normally migrate to New Zealand, but this one took a sharp 90-degree turn and landed on the beaches of Ansons Bay in eastern Tasmania, Australia.
Dr. Woehler summarized that this “wrong turn” increased the species’ previously assumed “flight capacity,” raising the question: could another godwit fly even farther without stopping in the future?
After such an incredible journey, who could deny godwits only the best five-star facilities when they arrive?
