Alaska-Australia flight could place bird in record books

By ROD McGUIRK
Associated Press

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A young bar-tailed godwit appears to have set a non-stop distance record for migratory birds by flying at least 13,560 kilometers (8,435 miles) from Alaska to the Australian state of Tasmania. Birdlife Tasmania says the bird was tagged as a hatchling in Alaska during the Northern Hemisphere summer with a tracking GPS chip and tiny solar panel that enabled researchers to follow its first annual migration across the Pacific Ocean. Satellite data shows it left Alaska on Oct. 13 and touched down again 11 days later in Tasmania. Guinness World Records lists the longest recorded migration by a bird without stopping as 12,200 kilometers (7,580 miles) by a bar-tailed godwit flying from Alaska to New Zealand in 2020.