• 

  Profile

• 

  In flight

Cranes & Waders

Bar-tailed Godwit

Limosa lapponica

• uncommon
• 40 km/h
• Near Threatened

Holds the record for the longest non-stop bird flight ever recorded: 13,560 km. Your message is on the marathon.

Population

~770,000–880,000 mature individuals (~1.1 million total); decreasing

Habitat

Breeds on Arctic tundra — marshy, swampy lowland moss/shrub tundra near wet river valleys, lakes and sedge bogs; non-breeding season on coastal intertidal mudflats, estuaries, inlets, mangrove-fringed lagoons and sheltered bays

Fun fact

In October 2022 a juvenile Bar-tailed Godwit (satellite-tagged "234684") set the record for the longest known nonstop bird migration, flying roughly 13,560 km from Alaska to Tasmania in about 11 days without stopping to rest, drink, or feed.

Range

Breeds across the Eurasian Arctic from northern Scandinavia discontinuously east to the Russian Far East, and in western/northern Alaska; winters along Atlantic coasts of Europe and Africa, the Middle East, patchily along coastal East Africa and South-East Asia, and throughout Australasia (Australia, New Zealand)

Diet

Mainly marine bristle-worms (polychaetes, up to ~70% of diet), plus small bivalves and crustaceans probed from mudflats; on breeding grounds and wet pastures also takes terrestrial invertebrates and some plant matter

Size

0.39 m

Wingspan

0.75 m

Lifespan

34 years