The Guinness Book of Records announced that it had recorded the longest non-stop flight of a bird ever. The bird, a type of “Godwit”, known for its long beak, traveled 8,495 miles (about 13,500 km) without stopping, when it flew from the US state of Alaska to the island of Tasmania in South Australia.
The bird, which was attached to an electronic chip to track its progress, left Alaska on October 11, 2022 and then landed in Tasmania 11 days later, on a journey during which it did not get a meal or rest.
And the bird succeeded in breaking a previous record, which was recorded for another “Godwit”, as it flew a distance of 217 miles (about 350 km).
Eric Waller told Guinness Book of World Records that the record-breaking bird may have lost half or more of its weight while flying continuously, day and night.
He added: “If the Godwit bird lands on the water, it dies immediately. He has nothing to swim with and no way to land on the surface of the water.”
“So if the bird had fallen into the ocean from exhaustion, or bad weather had forced it into the water, that would have been the end of it,” Waller said.
