bird's flight

Wading bird travels 7,000 miles nonstop to break flying record
Energy required to complete the migratory journey is the greatest in the animal kingdom, according to scientists


A bar-tailed godwit stands in shallow water.

A bar-tailed godwit has been crowned the endurance champion of the animal kingdom after completing an epic 7,200 mile nonstop flight across the Pacific Ocean from Alaska to New Zealand.

The wading bird's journey lasted more than eight days with no rest or food, and took it into a place in the record books. Scientists tracking the bird's flight said it was unprecedented.

Theunis Piersma, a biologist at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands who worked on the study, said: "There is something special going on here. For a vertebrate this kind of endurance is just extraordinary." ...