Bird migration has puzzled and fascinated people for thousands of years, leading to all kinds of bizarre explanations for the disappearance of birds at certain times of year. Gone are the days when people thought Swallows hibernated at the bottom of lakes, or that Cranes flew to the edge of the world to fight tiny goat-riding men (yes, really!), but we still have a lot to learn. Now, scientists are hoping to shed light on the journeys of the UK’s Bar-tailed Godwits through an exciting new GPS-tagging project.
With their long legs and long, thin beaks, Bar-tailed Godwits are supremely adapted for wading through wetlands and poking about in the mud for crustaceans, worms and other tasty minibeasts. Globally, there are five different subspecies of ‘Barwits’, as they’re affectionately known, which are split up based on where they breed, where they migrate to and minor differences in how they look.
All of the subspecies spend the northern hemisphere’s spring and summer months breeding across a stretch of the Arctic from Alaska in the west to Siberia in the east. Then they head south to escape the Arctic’s harsh winters – but exactly where they go depends on the subspecies in question.
In 2007, a Bar-tailed Godwit of the ‘baueri’ subspecies flew from Alaska across the Pacific Ocean to New Zealand without stopping, making it the longest continuous flight of any bird ever recorded. No breaks, no snacks and definitely no in-flight movies – just nine days of constant flapping!
Then in 2022, another Barwit of the same subspecies smashed this world record with a non-stop flight from Alaska to southern Australia over 11 days, after taking a wrong turn on its journey to New Zealand.
The Bar-tailed Godwits that fly from Alaska to New Zealand follow what’s called the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, but the subspecies of Godwit that visit us here in the UK use the East Atlantic Flyway instead. This migration superhighway stretches from the Arctic to South Africa and is travelled by millions of birds every year, with many visiting The Wash in eastern England enroute.
“We’re lucky to have an amazing array of wildlife here in the UK, and The Wash is one of our globally important hotspots for migratory birds taking a pit-stop on their globe-spanning journeys” says Guy Anderson, the RSPB’s Migrants Recovery Programme Manager. “But for some – like the Bar-tailed Godwit – we don’t know much about where they go when they’re not here. And that’s where the tagging project comes in.”
As part of the project, which was facilitated by the RSPB, specially trained scientists from the Wash Wader Research Group (WWRG) attached GPS tag ‘backpacks’ to five Bar-tailed Godwits. The tags are carefully designed to be as unobtrusive as possible and weigh just a tiny fraction of the Godwits’ body weight, allowing them to go about their business completely normally while their locations are recorded and transmitted to the researchers via mobile phone networks.
The tagged birds are already providing fascinating insights into Godwit migration, with one adult male named Clive – after Dr Clive Minton, the founder of the WWRG – already showing some unexpected behaviour.
He recently set off from The Wash and looked to be heading towards West Africa, but faced with an approaching storm, decided to loop back to where he started, covering over 2,000 miles in four-and-a-half days.
Dr Nigel Clark from the WWRG, said: “It’s absolutely incredible what this project is already revealing about the hazards birds face and the choices they have to make on their long and challenging migrations – it’s a lot more complex than we ever imagined or would have predicted.”
“The fact that Clive has returned to The Wash and the rich feeding areas of the east coast in England goes to show just how important these coastal wetlands are for their survival.”
“If key sites along their migration routes are damaged or destroyed, the birds that previously depended on them may struggle to survive.” adds Guy. “We need to do everything we can to ensure these places remain for future generations of birds and people to enjoy.”
In a bid to ensure England’s east coast wetlands get the recognition and protection they deserve, the RSPB initiated an application for UNESCO World Heritage status in 2022, with the backing of a number of partners including the National Trust.
As a result, the wetlands have been added to the UK’s Tentative List of potential World Heritage sites and if the application is successful, they will join iconic sites such as the Great Barrier Reef, Mount Etna and Machu Picchu in recognition of their outstanding value.
To find out whether Clive makes a second attempt at migrating, and for regular updates on the journeys of the other tagged Godwits, follow RSPB England on X/Twitter @RSPBEngland.
Who knows, one of them might even set a new world record!
