Mondo Knows Facts
A godwit flew 11,000 kilometres without landing
The bar-tailed bird crossed the Pacific in about nine days Satellite tags recorded individual birds leaving Alaska and reaching New Zealand without stopping. They shrink digestive organs before departure to save weight and rebuild them on arrival. The species holds the record for nonstop flight by a land bird. It sits in Mondo's animals collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
Where this comes from
Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
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Some swifts stay airborne for monthsRadio tracking shows common swifts flying without landing for most of the non-breeding seasonArctic terns complete the longest migration of any animalArctic terns fly about 90,000 kilometres annually from pole to pole.Alpine swifts can stay airborne for over 200 daysTracking showed the birds never landed during their African winterArctic terns make the longest migration of any animalTagged birds flew nearly 90,000 kilometres in one annual round tripNo monarch butterfly completes the whole migrationThe return journey north takes three or four generationsSalmon find their home river by smellThey remember the chemical signature of the water where they hatched
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A godwit flew 11,000 kilometres without landing: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- The bar-tailed bird crossed the Pacific in about nine days. The figure is taken from Audubon, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a animals fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Animals shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.