Bar-tailed godwit

The bar-tailed godwit (Limosa lapponica)  is a water bird. It is a large wader in the family Scolopacidae. It breeds on Arctic coasts and tundra mainly in the Old World, and winters on coasts in temperate and tropical regions of the Old World.del Hoyo J; Elliott A. & Sargatal J. eds 1996. Handbook of the birds of the world, vol 3, Lynx Ediciones. Barcelona. .

Its migration is the longest known non-stop flight of any bird and also the longest journey without pausing to feed by any animal.

 Migrations 

The bar-tailed godwit migrates in flocks to coasts in East Asia, Alaska, Australia, Africa, northwestern Europe and New Zealand, where the sub-species Limosa lapponica baueri is called Kūaka in Māori.Heather Barrie & Hugh Robertson 2005. The field guide to the birds of New Zealand. revised ed, Viking.Stap, Don. 2009. The flight of the Kuaka. Living Bird.

In 2007 birds in New Zealand were tagged and tracked by satellite to the Yellow Sea in China. According to Clive Minton (Australasian Wader Studies Group) "The distance between these two places is , but the actual track flown by the bird was ". The flight took about nine days.This is the longest known non-stop flight of any bird. At least three other bar-tailed godwits reached the Yellow Sea after non-stop flights from New Zealand.

One female in the flock, nicknamed "E7", flew onward from China to Alaska and stayed there for the breeding season. Then on 29 August 2007 she departed on a non-stop flight from the Avinof Peninsula in western Alaska to the Piako River near Thames New Zealand, setting a new known flight record of .Gill R.E. et al 2009. Extreme endurance flights by landbirds crossing the Pacific Ocean: ecological corridor rather than barrier?Proc Biol Sci.276(1656):447-57.  PDF 

 References 

Category:Scolopacidae