The Current How a four-month-old bird flew non-stop for 11 days
Feb 6, 2026
Bruce Beehler, retired ornithologist and author, explains the bar-tailed godwit and the youthful B6 that flew nonstop across the Pacific. He discusses how birds bulk up, shrink organs and possibly sleep one hemisphere at a time in flight. Bruce also explores innate navigation, a light-sensitive magnetic sense, and why these mysteries inspire humility and conservation.
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Young Godwit’s First Epic Journey
- B6, a four-month-old bar-tailed godwit, flew from Alaska to Tasmania in 2022 on its first migration with other young birds.
- Many birds of the year attempt this route but a large number do not survive the journey.
Extreme Preflight Body Remodeling
- Bar-tailed godwits massively rework their bodies before migration, doubling weight and shrinking digestive organs.
- Physiologists cannot fully explain how they sustain such extreme nonstop flights.
Flight Defies Current Physiology
- Scientists find the godwit's nonstop 264-hour flight physiologically inexplicable with current knowledge.
- Studying these birds may reveal new biological mechanisms that could inform human technology and medicine.
