Every autumn the bar-tailed godwit undertakes an eight-day journey from Alaska to New Zealand. The bird flies non-stop, without once breaking the journey to rest or eat. Then when spring comes, the bar-tailed godwit makes the 11,000-kilometre journey back to Alaska.
The long-distance flight record for aircraft is held by QiniteQ’s Zephyr, an unmanned solar-powered craft. It can remain in the air for 82 hours, around three and a half days, compared with the bar-tailed godwit’s eight-day flight.Anders Hedenström has calculated that the bar-tailed godwit consumes 0.41 per cent of its body weight each hour during its long flight.
A comparison can be made with a completely different group of long-distance travellers from the animal kingdom — eels. These animals swim a distance of 5 500 kilometres between Europe and the Sargasso Sea.To complete the bar-tailed godwit’s 11 000-kilometre journey would take the eel 345 days, according to Anders Hedenström.
Could the bird’s success be due to a particularly good ability to navigate with the help of an inner compass that makes use of the earth’s magnetic field, for example? Anders Hedenström notes that there are a number of exciting questions surrounding the bar-tailed godwit’s ability not to get lost up in the air.
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