Bar-tailed Godwit

29 Oct 2024 15:26:19 pm

Tags : Bar-tailed Godwit

Topic: Biodiversity

Why in the news?

The bar-tailed godwit is renowned for its ability to fly non-stop for up to 8 days covering over 12,000 kilometers during its migration from Alaska to New Zealand.
This feat not only showcases its incredible physical adaptations but also highlights its exceptional navigational skills, making it one of nature’s most impressive long-distance travelers.

Source: The Hindu

About Bar-tailed Godwit:

It is a large and strongly migratory wader in the family Scolopacidae.
It has distinctive red breeding plumage, long legs, and a long upturned bill.
It breeds on Arctic coasts and tundra from Scandinavia to Alaska, and overwinters on coasts in temperate and tropical regions of Australia and New Zealand.
The migration of the subspecies Limosa lapponica baueri across the Pacific Ocean from Alaska to New Zealand is the longest known non-stop flight of any bird, and also the longest journey without pausing to feed by any animal.
The round-trip migration for this subspecies is over 29,000 km.
Breeding:
- It is a non-breeding migrant in Australia and New Zealand.
- Birds first depart for their northern hemisphere breeding sites at age 2–4.
- Breeding takes place each year in Scandinavia, northern Asia, and Alaska.
- Both sexes share incubation of the eggs for 20 to 21 days, the male during the day and the female at night.
Its main source of food is bristle-worms, supplemented by small bivalves, crustaceans and shellfish on coastal mudflats and estuaries. In wet pastures, it eats invertebrates.
Male bar-tailed godwits are smaller than females and have shorter bills.
The status of the bar-tailed godwit is Near Threatened, and the population is declining.