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The bar-tailed godwit (Limosa lapponica) is a large wader in the family Scolopacidae. The genus name Limosa is from Latin and means "muddy", from limus, "mud". The specific lapponica refers to Lapland. The English term "godwit" was first recorded in about 1416–7 and is believed to imitate the bird's call.
The bar-tailed godwit breeds on Arctic coasts and tundra mainly in the Old World, and winters on coasts in temperate and tropical regions of the Old World and of Australia and New Zealand. Its migration includes the longest known non-stop flight of any bird and also the longest journey without pausing to feed by any animal.
The global population is estimated to number 1,099,000-1,149,000 individuals.
"The entire annual journey of a baueri bar-tailed godwit is about 30,000km [18,500 miles]," explains US Geological Survey biologist Lee Tibbetts. "This journey is completed in three non-stop flights over the course of about 20 days of flying."
"The three flights are from non-breeding areas in New Zealand or eastern Australia to staging areas in Asia, from Asia to breeding areas in Alaska, and then from Alaska back to New Zealand," says Tibbetts. "The longest of these flight legs is the one from Alaska to New Zealand and the record for migration distance of it is 11,800km [7,300 miles]."
"The migration strategy of the bar-tailed godwit only works if their stopover areas can provide enough fuel for their long flights… That is why there is so much recent concern over the destruction and degradation of staging sites in Asia and changes to wetlands and mudflats worldwide from climate change."
"We are all wondering if long-haul migrants can survive without intact staging areas where they can fatten up enough to fly on and to breed. Early indications are that the birds are not adapting fast enough, as measured in survival rates and declining population sizes," she warns.
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The bar-tailed godwit breeds on Arctic coasts and tundra mainly in the Old World, and winters on coasts in temperate and tropical regions of the Old World and of Australia and New Zealand. Its migration includes the longest known non-stop flight of any bird and also the longest journey without pausing to feed by any animal.
The global population is estimated to number 1,099,000-1,149,000 individuals.
"The entire annual journey of a baueri bar-tailed godwit is about 30,000km [18,500 miles]," explains US Geological Survey biologist Lee Tibbetts. "This journey is completed in three non-stop flights over the course of about 20 days of flying."
"The three flights are from non-breeding areas in New Zealand or eastern Australia to staging areas in Asia, from Asia to breeding areas in Alaska, and then from Alaska back to New Zealand," says Tibbetts. "The longest of these flight legs is the one from Alaska to New Zealand and the record for migration distance of it is 11,800km [7,300 miles]."
We are all wondering if long-haul migrants can survive without intact staging areas where they can fatten upTibbetts and her colleagues are studying the migration routes of bar-tailed godwits, amid concerns for the future of these long-distance fliers.
"The migration strategy of the bar-tailed godwit only works if their stopover areas can provide enough fuel for their long flights… That is why there is so much recent concern over the destruction and degradation of staging sites in Asia and changes to wetlands and mudflats worldwide from climate change."
"We are all wondering if long-haul migrants can survive without intact staging areas where they can fatten up enough to fly on and to breed. Early indications are that the birds are not adapting fast enough, as measured in survival rates and declining population sizes," she warns.
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