The Godwit is a remarkable member of the Sandpiper family that is clearly plumaged with a long black tail and underwings, with a long, pinkish-colored bill that towards the end turns up toward the sky, giving it the heavenly title of identification.
Most godwits breed within the northernmost boreal woodland habitat. It is called the wonder bird for annually migrating almost 17,000 miles from northern Alaska all the way south past the equator to the distant part of Chile in South America. However, most of the long distance takes place flying day and night, nonstop without rest or food.
There is a conflicting argument that the Arctic Tern flies a longer distance of some 25,000 miles from the North Pole to the South Pole every year, but the Godwit’s incredible journey is made without stopping at all for such a long distance. The Godwit’s preflight preparation is much more intensive, taking on a couple of months’ body fat by gorging up on worms and dime-size clams instead of burning up existing body sugars and getting dehydrated the way humans would, needing to stop for a cup of water during a marathon.
The Godwit’s future challenges for such an epic journey, crossing two continents amidst changing weather and difficult topography must be overcome by an inner guidance of a magnet-homing instinct traveled as well as geographical positions reached in flight by the detection of signals from the earth’s magnetic fields. Like pigeons finding their way home for a thousand miles or more by the passage of iron particles through a cell above their bills known as magnetic navigation, the Godwit’s navigational skills are very similar to homing signals that brought migratory swallows back to Capistrano at the same time every year.
In modern medical research, studying the superpowers of migratory birds may lead to breakthroughs for human application. Migratory birds can sleep while they fly by, getting shuteye on one side of the brain while the other stays awake and alert and then switching sides, a process called slow wave switching hemisphere sides.
Dolphins and whales can take naps this way as well. Godwits can also somehow store air after it passes through their lungs and then breathe with it again. These abilities of other creatures can benefit us by learning and evaluation.
As the Godwit takes flight on aerial wings from one geographical pole on this planet to another, it is beginning to transmit a message to mankind that is written in the stars, a heavenly revelation that by learning behavioral secrets of other species may now be applied to benefit the welfare of all mankind.
By George B. Emmons
Very interesting article. One fact I would have included was how they can shrink and expand their organs.