“Bar-tailed Godwits regularly travel more than 7,000 miles non-stop.”
One tagged godwit flew from Alaska to Australia in 239 hours of flapping without rest, more than 8,100 miles. A tenth of a degree off at takeoff changes the distance. The tracking reports come from a builder in West Auckland who checks the data every morning before work. A bird smaller than a chicken holds a record no aircraft engineer would sign off on.