Alaska-Australia flight could place bird in record books

Canberra, Australia: A young bar-tailed godwit appears to have set a non-stop distance record for migratory birds by flying at least 13,560 kilometers (8,435 miles) from Alaska to the Australian state of Tasmania, a bird expert said.

The bird was tagged as a hatchling in Alaska during the Northern Hemisphere summer with a tracking GPS chip. Aged about five months, it left southwest Alaska at the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta on Oct. 13 and touched down 11 days later at Ansons Bay on the island of Tasmania’s northeastern tip on Oct. 24.

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