[TN-Bird] Bar-tailed Godwits
- From: "Scott Somershoe" <Scott.Somershoe@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "TN-Birds" <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2007 08:56:50 -0500
I don't think I sent this before or saw it posted, but I could be wrong. =
Sorry for any double posting. This story is about Bar-tailed Godwits and =
satellite tracking of migrants. Absolutely amazing the distances they fly =
nonstop. We knew it, but are quantifying it and finding stopover spots. =
See website link at bottom for looking at individual bird's paths.
Amazing birds.
Scott Somershoe
Here you go:
March 29, 2007=20
The news yesterday morning is that the experiment of putting satellite
transmitters on Bar-tailed Godwits in New Zealand to track their
northward migration has been a resounding success.=20
One bird has just reached Yalu Jiang, at the northern end of the Yellow
Sea in China, in a non-stop flight from Miranda Nature Reserve, in the
Firth of Thames in North Island, New Zealand. The distance between these
two locations is 9,575 km but the actual track flown by the bird was
10,200 km. This is the longest known non-stop flight of any bird. The
flight took approximately nine days. While this bird could have chosen
to stop further south on the tidal mudflats of China it chose to fly
non-stop the extra distance to the northern end of the Yellow Sea to
stop and feed before its final leg to their breeding grounds.=20
At least three other Bar-tailed Godwits also appear to have reached the
Yellow Sea after non-stop flights within 6.5 - 7.5 days from New
Zealand. Several others are still in flight and following the same
track. Three out of 10 satellite-tagged birds which have so far migrated
appear to have stopped off on their way. One diverted westwards and has
stopped in the Philippines, one is in Micronesia and the third has only
reached Papua New Guinea. The New Guinea bird appeared to have changed
its mind about the migration and has now flown south to Queensland.=20
These very exciting results are a reward for the perseverance and
development effort put in by the Alaskan/New Zealand team over the last
three years. It appears they have now really developed a satellite
transmitter that is not significantly affecting the flight capabilities
of the birds. We are now seeing a true picture of what happens during
the migration of these birds.=20
Only 10 to 15 years ago many people were sceptical that godwits and knot
flew from the north west of Australia 5500 km non-stop to Chongming Dao
in the Yangtze River Estuary. Since then it has become apparent that
Bar-tailed Godwits fly up to 11,000 km non-stop on southward migration
from Alaska to New Zealand and Australia. It was thought this was
achieved because the birds were aided by weather conditions which gave
them an extremely strong tail wind in the early stages of that flight
from Alaska. Researchers have now shown that Bar-tailed Godwits are
capable of flying a similar distance on northward migration, without
apparent exceptionally favourable wind conditions. =20
It has long been suspected that the very high weights reached by
Bar-tailed Godwits, and several other species, before they leave south
east Australia in March/April indicated the capability of the birds to
reach China in a single non-stop flight. It would have been impossible
to prove this without the use of satellite telemetry.=20
These results are a huge step forward in our understanding of the flight
capabilities of migratory waders and therefore of the migratory
strategies they employ. Congratulations to the whole US/NZ team on this
hugely successful exercise.=20
The Bar-tailed Godwits can be followed on:
www.werc.usgs.gov/sattrack/shorebirds/overall.html =20
State Ornithologist
Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency
P.O. Box 40747
Nashville, TN 37204
615-781-6653 (o)
601-868-0101 (cell)
615-781-6654 (fax)
Shipping addresses for packages:
UPS:
TWRA
440 Hogan Rd
Nashville, TN 37220
=20
FedEx:
TWRA 5107 Edmondson Pike
Nashville, TN 37211
"Keeping the rubber side down." -SGS=20
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