Bar-tailed Godwit: World Record in Non-Stop Flight

With a non-stop flight of more than 12’000 kilometres across the Pacific, a migratory bird has, according to experts, set a new world record.

The bar-tailed godwit named 4BBRW flew from Alaska to New Zealand in nine days without a single stopover. This was announced by New Zealand's conservation authority on 23 October 2020. In doing so, it broke a previous record set by a member of the same species in 2007, which had flown 11’680 kilometres without stopping.

The ringed godwit, whose journey was tracked by satellite, departed from Alaska on 16 September and arrived in the Firth of Thames on New Zealand's North Island on 27 September. In total, the bird flew for 224 hours without interruption.

At times it reached speeds of up to 100 kilometres per hour. “We know that wind is an important part of migration strategy, and like a cyclist, the birds will try to get a tailwind when they can, but they don't always manage it”, said bird expert Keith Woodley. The record-breaking bird was “a true champion».

An extremely rare visitor in Switzerland

Bar-tailed godwits, known scientifically as “Limosa lapponica”, have a body length of around 40 centimetres and a ten-centimetre-long bill. They can also be seen in large numbers in the mudflats of Central Europe, where they stop to rest on their way to their wintering grounds.

They typically stay in the island nation in the South Pacific from September to March before beginning their return journey. On the return trip, however, they make a stopover in China and fly back to Alaska in May or June.

It is not certain, but it is believed that the birds do not sleep during their journey, during which they spend most of their time flapping their wings. They are built like a jet fighter. Long, pointed wings and a truly slender design that gives them a great deal of aerodynamic potential.

In Switzerland, bar-tailed godwits are described on the website of the Swiss Ornithological Institute Sempach as a “regular, scarce passage migrant and extremely rare winter visitor”. The most recent passage migrants were spotted in 2018 on the upper Lake Zurich, and on Lakes Murten, Neuchâtel, and Constance, and as a winter visitor in the 2015/16 season, also on the upper Lake Zurich. In the early 1990s, bar-tailed godwits visited Switzerland more frequently.