A bird has been get over making a gigantic journey of over 12,000 klick ( 7,500 miles ) from Alaska to New Zealand without a individual break , setting a new world record for the longest logged continuous flight by a bird .
The legal community - tailed godwit , know as 4BBRW , set off from southwestern Alaska on September 16 and bear upon down in a bay near Auckland , New Zealand just 11 days subsequently , concord toGlobal Flyway internet , a preservation group that analyze the migrations of shorebirds .
information from its planet tag suggests the bird traveled a aloofness of 12,854 km ( 7,987 miles ) , although the real build is potential to be closer to 12,200 kilometers ( 7,580 miles ) after accounting for error , The Guardianreports . Either path , this seems to be a record distance . Theprevious recordwas countersink in 2007 after a bird of the same specie completed an 11,680 - klick ( 7,258 miles ) journey across the Pacific , which outdid all homo - made aircraft at the sentence .
Bar - tailed godwits ( Limosa lapponica ) are a coinage of jampack bird no stranger to epic migrations . Each yr , they breed in the upper reaches of the northerly Hemisphere before venturing on a stupendous journeying to the Southern Hemisphere for wintertime . The metal money can be break down into at least five subspecies , all of which have their own summertime breeding grounds , from North America to Russia and Northern Europe . The large of the race , L. l. Baueri , multiply in western Alaska but spends its winters in Australia and New Zealand .
During the one-year trip , this subspecies is often seen make out journeys of over 10,000 kilometers ( 6,200 miles ) . However , this late record book - breaker appears to have gone that piffling bit further due to strong winds .
“ They are take flight over open sea for days and days in the mid - Pacific ; there is no land at all . Then they get to New Caledonia and Papua New Guinea where there are quite a few islands and , we might be anthropomorphizing , but it really attend like they start spotting land and sort of think , ‘ Oh , I need to come out trend or I will miss New Zealand ’ , ” Dr Jesse Conklin , a node researcher at the Global Flyway connection , toldiNews .
The mintage ’ power to make these long journeyswithout sleep or foodwas once a subject of much secret , but scientist are slow unpicking how the jet - like dame reach this feat . A study from 2010by Lund University in Sweden find that the prevention - tail godwitconsumed extremely little push compared with other specie of bird , consuming just 0.41 percentage of its body weight each hour during its flight of stairs . It also has a near - sodding ratio of consistence system of weights to size for make out multi - marathon flight with much of its body weight comprising of fat before it takes on the intimidating expedition . On top of this , the taproom - tailed godwit is a flying throwaway thanks to its exceptionally streamlined body form , which mean it can deal long distances in a comparatively short distance of time .
Nevertheless , query still remain . For one , scientist have little idea of how the birds sail these huge distances without getting lost .
