Bar-tailed Godwit

Bar-tailed Godwits

Bar-tailed Godwit arrived back on Motueka sandspit on the 5th November 2025 4RYRB was banded and satelite-tagged on 29 November 2019 at the Ohau Estuary, in the North Island. Note the wire from the satelite can be seen on the left of this image
4RYRB now has the distinction of being tracked for the longest duration of any New Zealand godwit, at 2193 days and still going.

She has now made 4 successful round-trips to Alaska and back. On all four northward trips, she has stopped in the Lianyun district of China in the western Yellow Sea. She breeds in northwestern Alaska near Point Lay, but only in 2025 did she remain at the breeding grounds long enough to have plausibly raised chicks to fledging (47 days). In 2022 and 2023, she flew non-stop from Alaska to New Zealand, but both times stopped on the North Island before returning to Motueka. In 2024 and 2025, she stopped in Moreton Bay, Australia for several weeks on her way south.

Hopefully she keeps on transmitting!