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This year, a female godwit, identified as 4BYWW by the bands on her legs, was confirmed as having made the longest flight ever recorded by a land bird. She travelled non-stop from Alaska to New Zealand, a journey of 12,200km that took eight days and 12 hours at an average speed of 59km/h.
But one unlucky godwit, an adult male known as 4BWRB, was forced to take a large U-turn over the Pacific Ocean, finishing up back at its Alaska take-off point after 57 hours of constant flight.
Every year, the Eastern bar-tailed godwits, or kuaka in Māori, make one of the longest avian migration flights in the world, travelling from their breeding ground in the Arctic, across the Pacific, to New Zealand.
About 80,000 godwits arrive in New Zealand each year, and move into harbours and estuaries across the two islands. Typically, the flocks are welcomed in September, sometimes to the sound of Cathedral bells.