13,560 kilometers without stopping: Satellite tag data suggests the migratory bird did not stop during the 11-day journey.
A young Black-tailed Godwit (Limosa lapponica) appears to have set a non-stop distance record for migratory birds by flying at least 13,560 kilometers (8,435 miles) from Alaska to the Australian state of Tasmania.
The bird was tagged as a breeding bird in Alaska during the northern hemisphere summer with a GPS tracking chip and a tiny solar panel that allowed an international research team to track its first annual migration across the Pacific Ocean, BirdLife Tasmania coordinator said. , Eric Wöhler. Because the bird was so young, its sex was unknown.
About five months old, came out of southwestern Alaskain the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, on October 13 and made landfall 11 days later in Ansons Bay, on the northeast tip of the island of Tasmania, on October 24, according to data from Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Ornithology. The research has not yet been published or peer reviewed.
13,560 kilometers without stopping
The bird began heading southwest toward Japan, then turned southeast over Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, according to a map released by New Zealand’s Pukorokoro Miranda Shorebird Center.
Wonderful news on ultramarathon flying Bar-tailed Godwits. Satellite tracked bird has flown NONSTOP from Alaska to Tasmania for the first time! What a trip! Thanks @miranda_trustMax Planck Institute and others for this work drawing our world together. Nature is wild! 1/2 pic.twitter.com/NnT0QtLCUx
— Andrew Darby (@looksouth) October 24, 2022
The bird moved southwest as it flew over or near Kiribati and New Caledonia, then passed over the Australian mainland before turning directly west toward Tasmania, the southernmost state of Australia. The satellite trail showed that it had covered 13,560 kilometers (8,435 miles) without stopping.
“We still don’t know if this is an accident, if this bird got lost, or if it’s part of a normal migration pattern for the species,” said Woehler, who is part of the research project.
Guinness World Records
Los Guinness World Records they list the longest recorded migration by a bird without stopping to eat or rest as 12,200 kilometers (7,580 mi) by a satellite-tagged male Marlin’s marlin flying from Alaska to New Zealand.
That flight was recorded in 2020 as part of the same decade-long research project, which also involves China’s Fudan University, New Zealand’s Massey University and the Global Flyway Network.
The same bird broke its own record with a flight of 13,000 kilometers (8,100 miles) on its next migration last year, the researchers say. But Guinness has yet to recognize that feat.
Woehler said the researchers didn’t know if the latest bird, known by its satellite tag 234684, flew alone or as part of a flock.
“There are so few marked birds that we don’t know to what extent this event is representative or not”Woehler said.
“It may be that half of the birds migrating from Alaska arrive in Tasmania directly rather than through New Zealand, or it may be 1%, or it may be the first time it has happened,” he added.
Adult birds leave Alaska before young ones, so it’s unlikely the tagged bird followed more experienced travelers south, Woehler said.
Woehler hopes to see the bird once the wet weather clears in the remote corner of Tasmania, where it will plump up after losing half its body weight on its journey.