A red godwit born in 2022 flew 11 days and 11 nights between Alaska and Tasmania last October without taking a break to eat or drink.
This bird has earned a place in history. A five-month-old Bar-tailed Godwit traveled 13,560 kilometers from Alaska to the Australian state of Tasmania without stopping to feed or rest. This non-stop crossing of the Pacific Ocean is considered the longest ever made by a migrating bird. It was made official by the Guinness World Records .
It was thanks to a 5G satellite tag attached to its lower back that scientists were able to record this journey, which began on October 13, 2022. It lasted eleven days and an hour without the bird landing once, explains the English work. “The distance traveled is equivalent to two and a half journeys between London and New York, or one third of the total circumference of the planet».
«All red godwits make long migrations, but those in Alaska make exceptional flights“, said ornithologist Maxime Zucca to Franceinfo. These godwits that nest in Alaska are used to making a direct flight of 12,000 km to the Yucatán delta, in the Gulf of Mexico, where they store their fat. To then reach New Zealand, where they spend the winter. But “this is the first time that one of them has won Tasmania“, rejoices Maxime Zucca on his Twitter account.
If this bird known by its tag number “234684“didn’t stop to rest,”it is assumed that she is capable of having unihemispheric sleep stages», continues the ornithologist. In birds, this type of sleep mobilizes only half of the brain and allows the other to continue flapping its wings.
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The previous record was held by a bird of the same species which had traveled more than 12,000 km in eleven days to New Zealand, in 2020. Itself surpassing the record of another red godwit which had flown over 11,680 km in 2007.
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