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Bar-tailed godwits are almost certainly the world's champion endurance fliers. They breed in the high Arctic and spend the winter in the southern hemisphere (these are in the inconspicuous winter plumage). Their migration occurs in a number of very long stages covering thousands of kilometers. The longest of these nonstop flights is undertaken by a population that breeds in western Alaska and migrates -- in one long flight -- to New Zealand: about 11,000 km over a period of more than a week. This extraordinary flight was long suspected and recently confirmed by a female godwit carrying a satellite tag. These birds were photographed in a small estuary in Wollongong on the southern coast of New South Wales. |
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