Facts about Migration Patterns of Bar-tailed Godwit
- 06
Satellite tracking has revealed that bar-tailed godwits fly continuously for over eight days during their transpacific nonstop journey, relying entirely on fat reserves.
- 05
A bar-tailed godwit's organs, including the liver and digestive system, shrink significantly before migration to reduce weight and free up energy resources.
- 04
Before their nonstop transoceanic flights, bar-tailed godwits undergo extreme hyperphagia, nearly doubling their body weight by storing fat as fuel.
- 03
During their northward return migration, bar-tailed godwits make a stopover on the Yellow Sea mudflats to refuel before continuing to Arctic breeding grounds.
- 02
Bar-tailed godwits breed in Arctic tundra regions of Alaska and Siberia before undertaking their remarkable southward migrations each autumn.
- 01
The bar-tailed godwit holds the record for the longest nonstop migratory flight of any bird, traveling from Alaska to New Zealand without stopping to eat or drink.