Good godwit: Bird sets 7,242-mile nonstop record

The bar-tailed godwit, a plump shore bird, has blown the record for nonstop, muscle-powered flight right out of the sky. A study published Wednesday reports that godwits can fly up to 7,242 miles without stopping in their fall migration from Alaska to New Zealand. The previous record, set by eastern curlews, was a 4,000-mile trip. Godwits -- which burn off half of their 1.5 pounds during the trip -- flew for five to nine days without rest. They were monitored by satellite in 2006 and 2007. As a feat of sustained exercise unrelieved by sleeping, eating or drinking, the godwit's migration appears to be without precedent in the annals of vertebrate physiology. "The human species doesn't work at these levels. So you just have to sit back in awe of it all," said Robert Gill Jr., a biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, who headed the study.