glenc
12-09-2007, 07:14 AM
Godwit makes huge Pacific flight
It's official - the godwit makes the longest non-stop migratory flight in the world. A bird has been tracked from its Southern Hemisphere summertime home in New Zealand to its breeding ground in Alaska - and back again.
The bar-tailed godwit, a female known as E7, landed in New Zealand this past weekend after taking a week to fly 11,500km from Alaska to New Zealand.
Unlike seabirds, which feed and rest on long journeys, godwits just keep going.
The migrant champion was one of 13 satellite-tagged bar-tails (Limosa lapponica baueri) that left New Zealand at the beginning of the year.
Tag bonus
E7 set her first record on the way north, when she flew non-stop for 10,200km (6,340 miles) to Yalu Jiang in China. She then flew a further 5,000km (3,000 miles) to the godwit breeding grounds in Alaska. And on the way back to New Zealand, her tag still working, E7 set another record (7,150 miles).
"We were pretty impressed when she did 10,200km on the way north," says Massey University ecologist Phil Battley. "And the fact that she can now do 11,500km... it's just so far up from what we used to believe 10 years ago when we were thinking a five or 6,000km flight was extremely long. Here we've doubled it," adds the New Zealand coordinator of what is an international study.
More at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6988720.stm
It averaged 68 km/hr .
It's official - the godwit makes the longest non-stop migratory flight in the world. A bird has been tracked from its Southern Hemisphere summertime home in New Zealand to its breeding ground in Alaska - and back again.
The bar-tailed godwit, a female known as E7, landed in New Zealand this past weekend after taking a week to fly 11,500km from Alaska to New Zealand.
Unlike seabirds, which feed and rest on long journeys, godwits just keep going.
The migrant champion was one of 13 satellite-tagged bar-tails (Limosa lapponica baueri) that left New Zealand at the beginning of the year.
Tag bonus
E7 set her first record on the way north, when she flew non-stop for 10,200km (6,340 miles) to Yalu Jiang in China. She then flew a further 5,000km (3,000 miles) to the godwit breeding grounds in Alaska. And on the way back to New Zealand, her tag still working, E7 set another record (7,150 miles).
"We were pretty impressed when she did 10,200km on the way north," says Massey University ecologist Phil Battley. "And the fact that she can now do 11,500km... it's just so far up from what we used to believe 10 years ago when we were thinking a five or 6,000km flight was extremely long. Here we've doubled it," adds the New Zealand coordinator of what is an international study.
More at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6988720.stm
It averaged 68 km/hr .