Animal
Bar-tailed godwit
The bar-tailed godwit is a shorebird with a long, slightly upturned beak. It flies across the whole Pacific Ocean without stopping! It eats worms from the mud.
The bar-tailed godwit is a long-billed shorebird that breeds on Arctic tundra and spends the rest of the year on mudflats far to the south. Godwits from Alaska fly non-stop across the Pacific Ocean to New Zealand and Australia, and one young bird tracked in 2022 flew at least 13,560 kilometers without landing.
Limosa lapponica is a migratory sandpiper of the family Scolopacidae that breeds in the Arctic of Eurasia and Alaska and winters on coasts from western Europe and Africa to Australasia. NZ Birds Online says bar-tailed godwits make the longest non-stop flights of any non-seabird. The IUCN lists it as Near Threatened, with 770,000 to 880,000 mature individuals and a decreasing trend.
Photo: Andreas Trepte, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons
Meet the bar-tailed godwit
The bar-tailed godwit is a shorebird.
It has long legs and a long beak that bends up a little at the end. Most of the year it is brown and gray. When it is time to nest, many males turn a bright orange-red color!
The bar-tailed godwit is a large shorebird, about 39 to 41 centimeters long, with long legs and a long, tapering bill that curves slightly upward. The bill is pink near the face and black at the tip.
For most of the year godwits are streaky brown above and pale below, a good match for the mudflats where they feed. In the breeding season most males turn bright rufous, a rusty orange-red, on the head, neck and belly. Females are bigger, with longer bills, and much less colorful.
Limosa lapponica is a godwit of the sandpiper family, Scolopacidae. NZ Birds Online (Te Papa) gives lengths of 39 centimeters for males and 41 for females and weights of 275 to 400 grams for males and 325 to 600 grams for females: females are markedly larger and longer-billed.
The bill is long, tapering, slightly upturned and two-toned, pink at the base and black toward the tip. Non-breeding birds of both sexes are pale brown with dark streaks above, barred brown on the rump and tail, and pale below. In breeding plumage most males become bright rufous on the head, neck, breast and belly, with dark, buff-notched upperparts, while females are strongly streaked and barred with at most a pale rufous wash.
Quick facts
- Group
- Bird
- Length
- 0.39 to 0.41 m
- Wingspan
- 0.73 m
- Weight
- 0.28 to 0.6 kg
- Top speed
- up to 56 km/h
A bird of two hemispheres
Godwits nest in the far north, on cold, treeless land called tundra.
Then they fly south to beaches and muddy shores. Many spend summer in New Zealand and Australia.
Bar-tailed godwits nest on the Arctic tundra of northern Europe, Siberia and western Alaska. After nesting they fly to coasts far to the south: western Europe, Africa, southern Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
About 75,000 godwits from Alaska spend each southern summer in New Zealand, feeding in harbors and estuaries. In March they fly north again, stopping to refuel on the coasts of the Yellow Sea, between China and Korea, before returning to Alaska to nest.
The IUCN's 2025 global assessment lists the bar-tailed godwit as resident in 89 countries and territories, from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia and the United States (Alaska) to coasts of western Europe, West and southern Africa, the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand, and as a passage migrant in 86 more, across much of Europe, Africa and Central Asia. Breeding is on Arctic tundra.
The eastern subspecies, baueri, breeds in western Alaska, on upland and coastal tundra up to 200 kilometers inland. NZ Birds Online estimates this subspecies at fewer than 150,000 birds, about 75,000 of which spend the non-breeding season in New Zealand. They arrive from early September, leave from early March and refuel at staging sites around the Yellow Sea on the way north.
Continents
Where can you find this animal?
- Lives here naturally · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
- Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
- Migration route · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
Lives here naturally · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
Arctic tundra breeding grounds in northern Europe, Siberia and Alaska, and coasts and estuaries where godwits spend the rest of the year, from western Europe and Africa to Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Godwits live in only part of many countries shown.
Places: Angola, Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Solomon Is., Brunei, Myanmar, Cambodia and 67 more places.
Source: iucn-red-list · checked October 2026
Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
Counts of GBIF records of wild observations (human and machine) and preserved specimens. Records include introduced populations, vagrants, escaped or released animals and misidentifications, so a country with records is not necessarily part of the native range.
Wild sightings have been recorded in Sweden, Australia, Denmark, UK, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Spain and 122 more places.
Source: gbif · checked October 2026
Migration route · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
Countries the IUCN lists for bar-tailed godwits passing through on migration, including places they fly over between their breeding and wintering grounds.
Places: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Austria, Armenia, Bhutan, Bosnia & Herz. and 55 more places.
Source: iucn-red-list · checked October 2026
Range maps show where scientists say an animal lives, often country by country. An animal may live in only part of a country shown, and sightings records can include animals that wandered far from home.
Worms from the mud
Godwits push their long beaks into soft mud.
They pull out worms, little clams and tiny crabs. In the north, they eat insect babies and berries.
At low tide, bar-tailed godwits spread out over the mudflats, probing deep into the soft mud with their long bills. Most of what they eat in New Zealand is marine worms, called polychaetes, along with small clams and crustaceans. They also hunt for small animals in wet fields.
On their Arctic nesting grounds the menu changes: they eat cranefly larvae and other small creatures, plus berries when they first arrive.
On the non-breeding grounds bar-tailed godwits forage over the intertidal zone at low tide, alone or in loose groups, probing soft sediments. NZ Birds Online reports that polychaete worms probably make up over 70 percent of the diet, with small bivalves and crustaceans; birds also forage for terrestrial invertebrates in wet pasture.
On the breeding grounds they eat cranefly larvae and other invertebrates, and some berries, particularly soon after arrival. At high tide they gather in roosting flocks and can be very wary of people.
A body built for distance
Godwits flap their wings all the way.
They can fly for days without stopping to eat or rest. Some fly right across the ocean.
Unlike albatrosses, which glide, godwits flap their wings the whole time, at an average of about 56 kilometers an hour on their long flights. Godwits flying from Alaska to New Zealand, 11,000 to 12,000 kilometers, have taken 8 to 9 days.
Unlike a seabird, a godwit has no chance to feed during the flight. Godwits also use the wind: picking good weather and helpful winds is a key part of their journeys.
NZ Birds Online describes bar-tailed godwits as making the longest non-stop flights of any non-seabird, with no chance of feeding in flight. Satellite-tracked birds flying 11,000 to 12,000 kilometers from Alaska to New Zealand took 8 to 9 days at an average speed of about 56 kilometers per hour. Audubon points out that, unlike albatrosses and other long-flying seabirds, godwits are active fliers, not gliders: their wings beat the whole way.
Using suitable wind patterns is a key part of the migration strategy, and birds keep rigid individual schedules: each aims to leave New Zealand within the same 3 to 4 day window every year. Birds leaving in early March breed farther south in western Alaska, while those leaving in late March breed north of the Brooks Range, where snow clears later.
From tundra chick to ocean crosser
Godwits lay four eggs in a little bowl on the tundra.
The chicks can move about as soon as they hatch. When they are only four months old, they fly across the ocean!
On the Alaskan tundra, a godwit lays four eggs in a shallow bowl, often lined with lichen. Each egg is about 11 percent of the mother's body weight, so the chicks hatch well developed and can move about right away. Both parents share the job of keeping the eggs and chicks warm.
The young can fly at 28 to 30 days old. When they are barely four months old, they make their first flight across the Pacific Ocean. They do not breed until their third or fourth year.
Eastern bar-tailed godwits nest on tundra in western Alaska. The clutch is four eggs laid in a shallow, often lichen-lined bowl, and each egg is about 11 percent of the female's body mass; the payoff is chicks that are fully developed and mobile at hatching. Parents share incubation and brooding, though one may leave for the staging area early.
Young fledge after 28 to 30 days. After the breeding season adults and juveniles gather on the southern coast of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, and juveniles reach New Zealand after their first trans-Pacific flight when barely four months old. Godwits do not breed until their third or fourth year, so hundreds of young birds stay in New Zealand through each southern winter.
Record-breaking flights
Scientists put tiny trackers on some godwits.
One young godwit flew from Alaska all the way to Tasmania, in Australia. It flew for 11 days without stopping!
Scientists follow godwits with tiny satellite tags. In 2020 a tagged male known as 4BBRW flew 12,200 kilometers from Alaska to New Zealand without stopping, which Guinness World Records listed as the longest recorded non-stop migration by a bird. In 2021 the same bird flew more than 8,100 miles (about 13,000 kilometers) to Australia in 239 hours.
Then, in October 2022, a young godwit with tag number 234684, only about five months old, left Alaska on October 13 and landed in Tasmania on October 24, 11 days later. It flew at least 13,560 kilometers without stopping. An expert said it appeared to have set a new non-stop distance record for migratory birds.
According to an Associated Press report of 28 October 2022, Guinness World Records then listed the longest recorded non-stop migration by a bird as 12,200 kilometers (7,580 miles), by a satellite-tagged male bar-tailed godwit flying from Alaska to New Zealand in 2020; researchers said the same bird flew about 13,000 kilometers on its next migration, which Guinness had not yet acknowledged. Audubon identifies that bird as the adult male 4BBRW, which landed in New South Wales on 28 September 2021 after more than 8,100 miles and 239 hours of non-stop flight.
In 2022 a juvenile tagged as a hatchling, known by its satellite tag 234684 and about five months old, left the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta on 13 October and landed at Ansons Bay, northeastern Tasmania, on 24 October. The satellite trail showed at least 13,560 kilometers (8,435 miles) without stopping. BirdLife Tasmania's Eric Woehler said it appeared to be a non-stop distance record for migratory birds; the data, from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, had not yet been peer reviewed.
Did you know?
Each godwit leaves at about the same time every year.
Each godwit has its own timetable and tries to leave New Zealand within the same 3 to 4 days every year.
Individuals keep rigid departure schedules, aiming to leave within the same 3 to 4 day window each year, timed to snowmelt at their breeding site.
Saving the stopover sites
There are fewer godwits than there used to be.
Many of the muddy shores where they stop to eat are being lost. Protecting those places helps godwits on their long trips.
The bar-tailed godwit is Near Threatened, and its numbers are falling. In New Zealand, counts show the Alaskan godwits declining by nearly 2 percent a year.
The main reason is habitat loss around the Yellow Sea, where godwits stop to refuel on their way north. Godwits are easily scared, so disturbance at the places where they rest at high tide matters too. Godwits are fully protected in New Zealand, and leaving their resting flocks in peace helps.
The IUCN lists the bar-tailed godwit as Near Threatened (global assessment, 2025), with 770,000 to 880,000 mature individuals and a decreasing trend. In New Zealand, where the species is fully protected and was classed as At Risk, Declining in 2016, counts indicate an annual decline of nearly 2 percent, driven mainly by extensive habitat loss at staging areas in the Yellow Sea region.
NZ Birds Online also names disturbance at high-tide roosts and the expected effects of climate change: shrubs spreading into tundra, insect peaks arriving before chicks hatch, shifting wind patterns on migration routes and rising seas reducing intertidal feeding grounds. Alaskan subsistence harvest is thought to take few birds.
IUCN Red List
How is the bar-tailed godwit doing in the wild?
- Least Concern
- Near Threatened (this animal)
- Vulnerable
- Endangered
- Critically Endangered
- Extinct in the Wild
- Extinct
Near Threatened
Not at risk yet, but it could be soon.
See the IUCN Red List assessment · The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2021.3
Amazing facts
-
A godwit egg is very big for such a small bird.
Each godwit egg weighs about 11 percent of its mother's body weight, so the chicks hatch ready to move about.
Each egg is about 11 percent of female body mass; the investment yields fully developed, mobile chicks at hatching.
-
Young godwits cross the ocean when they are only four months old.
Juvenile godwits make their first flight across the Pacific Ocean to New Zealand when they are barely four months old.
Juveniles complete their first trans-Pacific flight to New Zealand at barely four months of age.
-
Each godwit leaves at about the same time every year.
Each godwit has its own timetable and tries to leave New Zealand within the same 3 to 4 days every year.
Individuals keep rigid departure schedules, aiming to leave within the same 3 to 4 day window each year, timed to snowmelt at their breeding site.
-
In New Zealand, the godwit is called kuaka.
The Maori name for the bar-tailed godwit is kuaka, and about 75,000 godwits spend each southern summer in New Zealand.
Known in Maori as kuaka, it is, in NZ Birds Online's words, the most numerous tundra-breeding shorebird species to occur in New Zealand, with about 75,000 birds each year.
Words to know
- shorebird
- a bird that feeds along beaches, mudflats and shallow water
- tundra
- cold, treeless land in the far north where the ground is frozen much of the year
- mudflat
- a flat area of mud uncovered when the tide goes out
- stopover site
- a place where migrating birds stop to rest and eat
- satellite tag
- a tiny tracker that sends a bird's position to scientists
- non-stop
- without landing or resting along the way
Discovery challenge
-
How far did the young godwit fly in 2022 without stopping?
How far did godwit 234684 fly non-stop from Alaska to Tasmania in 2022?
What minimum distance did godwit 234684 cover non-stop in October 2022?
- About 13 kilometers
- At least 13,560 kilometers
- About 1,356 kilometers
Show the answer
At least 13,560 kilometers
It flew at least 13,560 kilometers! That is across a whole ocean.
At least 13,560 kilometers in 11 days, from Alaska to Tasmania.
At least 13,560 km (8,435 miles), 13 to 24 October 2022, per satellite data reported by AP.
-
What does a godwit eat most?
What is the main food of godwits on New Zealand mudflats?
Which prey makes up most of the non-breeding diet?
- Marine worms
- Seeds
- Fish
Show the answer
Marine worms
Godwits pull worms out of the mud.
Marine worms called polychaetes, plus small clams and crustaceans.
Polychaete worms, probably over 70 percent of the diet.
-
Where do godwits stop to eat on their way north?
Where do New Zealand godwits stop to refuel on their way north?
Which region holds the key staging sites for godwits flying north from New Zealand?
- The Yellow Sea coast
- The Sahara Desert
- The Amazon rainforest
Show the answer
The Yellow Sea coast
They stop at muddy shores by the Yellow Sea.
They refuel on mudflats around the Yellow Sea, between China and Korea.
Staging sites around the Yellow Sea, where habitat loss now drives their decline.
-
How old are young godwits on their first big ocean flight?
How old are young godwits when they first fly to New Zealand?
At what age do juveniles make their first trans-Pacific flight?
- About four months
- About four years
- About four days
Show the answer
About four months
They are only about four months old!
Barely four months old.
At barely four months of age.
Places where you might see it
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Watch
Country
New Zealand
New Zealand, also called Aotearoa, is an island country in the South Pacific. Its two main islands have snowy mountains, glaciers, volcanoes and deep fiords, and about 5.36 million people lived there in 2026.
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Watch
Country
Australia
Australia is a country and the smallest continent, surrounded by ocean in the Southern Hemisphere. Much of its middle is dry and flat, most people live near the coast, and its animals include kangaroos, koalas and the platypus, a mammal that lays eggs.
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Watch
Country
United States
The United States is a large country in North America made of 50 states, from icy Alaska to the warm islands of Hawaii. It has the Grand Canyon, the Mississippi River and Yellowstone, and about 342 million people live there.
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For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Describe the bar-tailed godwit and how males and females differ.
- Explain the godwit's migration between Alaska and New Zealand or Australia.
- Describe the 2022 satellite-tracked flight and why scientists said it appeared to be a record.
- Explain why stopover sites like the Yellow Sea mudflats matter for migrating birds.
Recommended ages: 3 to 17 · About 15 minutes
Talk about it
- Why might a bird that cannot stop to feed during a flight over the ocean need to build up fuel before it leaves?
- Why are stopover sites so important for birds that migrate?
- How do satellite tags help scientists learn things they could not see?
Try at home or in class
- Use a globe or map and a piece of string to trace a route from western Alaska to Tasmania, then compare it with a trip across your own country.
- Hide pipe-cleaner worms in a tray of damp sand and try to pull them out with a long, thin straw, like a godwit's bill.
Key vocabulary: shorebird, tundra, mudflat, stopover site, satellite tag, non-stop
Where these facts come from
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species , International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN terms of use (no redistribution of Red List data or range maps))
- GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and GBIF Occurrence Search , Global Biodiversity Information Facility (CC0 1.0 (backbone); occurrence counts are facts derived from records under CC0, CC BY and CC BY-NC)
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- Limosa lapponica (Bar-tailed Godwit), Red List global assessment 2025 , IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
- Bar-tailed godwit | Kuaka , NZ Birds Online (Te Papa, Department of Conservation and Birds New Zealand)
- A non-stop flight from Alaska to Tasmania may be for the birds, and a possible record (Associated Press, 28 October 2022) , Montana Public Radio
- These mighty shorebirds keep breaking flight records, and you can follow along (8 October 2021) , National Audubon Society
- Wikimedia Commons , Wikimedia Foundation (Per file: Public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA only (credited on each page))
Checked, not yet human-reviewed. Last updated October 28, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.