Amazing bar-tailed godwit migration

At the Nisqually Watershed Festival, I told one of the regular readers of Thurston’s Birds a migration story about a bar-tailed godwit flying nonstop the length of the Pacific Ocean, a so-called “world record.” His response: “You’ve got to write that up.”

A bar-tailed godwit in flight.

Liam Hutcheson | For The JOLT News

Bar-tailed godwits breed in tundra areas across the Arctic. Most of the breeding population is found on Eurasia, primarily Siberia but also in northern Scandinavia. There is a smaller group that breeds in extreme western Alaska with a population estimate of 100,000.

For decades researchers at the Alaska Science Center in Nome, using federal funding provided through the United States Geological Survey (USGS), have conducted many shorebird monitoring projects, including the bar-tailed godwit tagging study. The principal researcher for this project was Daniel Ruthrauff. The migration report is summarized in an account published by the Alaska Science Center.

In the summer of 2022, Ruthrauff and his colleagues were seeking bar-tailed godwit nests near Nome with the intent of placing lightweight solar powered radio tags on the juveniles. The nesting area is permafrost tundra, open and grassy (see photo below) and researchers used radio trackers to follow the young godwits.   

Tracking juvenile godwits near their tundra nesting territory.

Courtesy of United States Geological Survey

The radio tags look like small godwit backpacks, glued in place and supported with straps under each bird’s legs. The radio tags report regularly via satellite on the birds’ location. In 2022, researchers were able to tag only three juveniles, all from one site.

A juvenile bar-tailed godwit with its new solar radio.

Courtesy of United States Geological Survey

In addition to the solar backpack, the birds were given leg bands that included prominent numbers. The juvenile that has drawn all the world record attention is “B6.” It was tagged southeast of Nome on July 11, 2022. By September, it had moved to a coastal feeding area. This aggressive feeding coastal area allows migrants to increase their weight by about 60% with added stores of fat.  

Juvenile bar-tailed godwit B6 getting its new tags.

Courtesy of United States Geological Survey

As September turned to October that year, researchers were concerned that B6 might not migrate. Why was this young bird dallying? Many Alaska bar-tailed godwits adults were already being seen on their winter territory in New Zealand.

In mid-October, there developed a low-pressure storm, rotating counterclockwise, in the Bering Sea. On Oct. 13, at just short of 4 months old, B6 finally departed Alaska, flying west and then south, pushed along by the storm’s strong winds.

Each day the bird’s backpack transmitter reported in via satellite as it flew south, down the middle of the Pacific Ocean. For the researchers tracking it, the suspense was intense. In just a few days, it was between New Zealand and Australia. Then B6 encountered another storm, this one taking it west. On Oct. 24, it landed at Anson’s Bay, Tasmania. Researchers celebrated. In 11 days B6 had flown over open ocean a total of 8,330 miles!

This was the longest nonstop migration flight ever documented. But it’s not just the distance that’s most amazing. This was a 4-month-old bird that had flown very little before it began this journey. It did not "train" for this flight, and it flew alone, with no adult guidance. Adult bar-tailed godwits migrate a month or so prior to the juveniles. Part of the flight was storm-assisted, but mostly it flew under its own power from high in the northern hemisphere to deep into the southern hemisphere. You can’t go much farther south than Tasmania.

After landing, B6 moved around various feeding and roosting sites in Anson’s Bay, and then on Nov. 5, the solar-powered transmitter stopped reporting. One reasonable possibility is that B6 had lost so much weight and body girth that it simply stepped out of its harness with the tag landing solar-side down and going silent. Regardless, that B6 tag is permanent and, since godwits can live 30-plus years, we can be hopeful in the future someone will spot B6.

If you want to know even more about B6 and the shorebird migration research projects, Daniel Ruthrauff led a 46-minute Zoom call in 2024. It was recorded by the Alaska Science Center and is available here. His presentation has much more information, including that the Alaska bar-tailed godwits do not fly back nonstop in the spring. They make a feeding stop between the Korean Peninsula and mainland China, and then fly on to Alaska.

USGS Research

The U.S. Geological Survey was founded by Congress in 1879 and charged with a very broad assignment — to research and learn about the lands and resources of the United States.

The USGS is active everywhere, including here in Thurston County. This agency operates a series of stream flow gauges. It monitors earthquakes and volcanos, including Mount Rainier. (David Johnson, the researcher killed in the Mount St. Helens eruption, was a USGS employee).

We know about the aquifers that underlie our county — the source of our drinking water — primarily because of basic research done over many decades by the USGS. Perhaps you’ve heard about the proposal to rebuild Interstate 5 onto piers as it crosses the Nisqually River. It’s the USGS that is modelling what changes are likely with this rebuilding, and what the risks are if the project is not done.

Basic research helps us understand the world we live in, and the creatures we share it with, including bar-tailed godwits.

Basic research also helps our elected officials make informed decisions about everything from drinking water to earthquake risks.

Earlier this year, Daniel Ruthrauff and others conducting research in the Alaska Science Center were informed by DOGE that their research efforts were being defunded (that is, canceled). After a 24-year career, he took the early retirement option and is no longer a USGS employee.

We Americans are fortunate to live in a very prosperous country. We can afford to fund the USGS and similar federal research agencies. Our lives are safer and richer for it. Our investments in research should be a source of national pride.

George Walter is environmental program manager at the Nisqually Indian Tribe’s natural resources department; he also has a 45+ year interest in bird watching. He may be reached at george@theJOLTnews.com.

The godwit photo for this column was provided by Liam Hutcheson, an 18-year-old Olympia area birder and avid photographer.