Bird Flies 13,560 Kilometres Non-Stop To Tasmania, Creates Guinness World Record

According to the Guinness World Records Arctic terns (Sterna paradisaea) is another bird species that can regularly fly greater distances over the course of a year.

A bar-tailed Godwit bird broke world record for the longest non-stop migration after it flew 13,560 kilometres (8,435 miles) from Alaska to Tasmania. On October 24, the bird landed in the Australian state of Tasmania, 11 days after it set off from Alaska. The journey of the bird was tracked with the help of a 5G satellite tag attached to its lower back, according to Guinness World Records.

"The distance covered is equivalent to two and a half trips between London and New York, or approximately one-third of the planet's full circumference. According to the 5G satellite tag attached to its lower back, the epic journey started on October 13, 2022, and continued for 11 days and one hour without the bird landing once," the organisation said.

The previous world record was set by a member of the same species in 2020. The five-month-old bar-tailed godwit has smashed the record by over 350 km (217 miles).

During its continuous journey, the bird lost almost 'half or more of its body weight', said Birdlife Tasmania convenor Eric Woehler said to the Guiness World Records.

“Short-tailed shearwaters and mutton birds can land on the water and feed. If a godwit lands on water, it’s dead. It doesn’t have the webbing in its feet, it has no way of getting off. So if it falls onto the ocean’s surface from exhaustion, or if bad weather forces it to land, that’s the end," Woehler added.

According to the record-keeping organisation, Arctic terns (Sterna paradisaea) is another bird species that can regularly fly greater distances over the course of a year.

It is rare for a bar-tailed Godwit bird to migrate to Tasmania as New Zealand is their preferred destination.