Bar-Tailed Godwit | Limosa lapponica | Vara Vaalan Godwit | വരവാലൻ ഗോഡ്‌വിറ്റ് | Migratory Birds скачать в хорошем качестве

Bar-Tailed Godwit | Limosa lapponica | Vara Vaalan Godwit | വരവാലൻ ഗോഡ്‌വിറ്റ് | Migratory Birds

Bar-Tailed Godwit | Limosa lapponica | Vara Vaalan Godwit | വരവാലൻ ഗോഡ്‌വിറ്റ് | Migratory Birds In ‘Malayalam’ vernacular, the bird is called as “Vara Vaalan Godwit”. Scientific name of the bird is Limosa lapponica. The birds are widely distributed in sea shores and tundra area in arctic regions including Alaska, Siberia, Scandinavia. In winter, every year, the birds migrate to temperate to tropical regions. The birds make a non-stop flight, using the usual flyways to different regions. The Bar-Tailed Godwit made a New World Record of long- distance non-stop flight in 2020. A satellite tagged male Bar-tailed Godwit set off from South west Alaska on 16th September 2020. A non-stop flying over the Aleutian Islands and crossing the Pacific Ocean arrived at Auckland in New Zealand taking 11 days at a speed of 55 km per hour. Satellite recorded a point-to -point flight of 12,854 km. It was estimated that the total flight time was 224 hours. The birds were among 20 caught and tagged by the Pukorokoro Miranda Shorebird Centre, Auckland during 2019. The previous record of non-stop flight by a Bar-tailed Godwit of 11, 680 km was recorded in 2007. It is a wonder, how the bird gets the energy for the long-distance non-stop flight. Study reveals that these Godwits carry the greatest fat loads of any migrant bird studied to date. Individuals apparently accommodate such prodigious amount of fat by reducing the size of their digestive apparatus prior to departing on the longest nonstop migration of any bird in the world. The birds are expected to start the return flight in March 2021, flying across Asia, where they feed for a month around the Yellow Sea before returning to Alaska. On the Kerala coast, this year, the bird was recorded from Kannur, on 10 September 2020. The Bar-Tailed Godwit is a long-legged species with a long tapering slightly upturned bill. The color of the bill is pink at the base and black towards the tip. Bill-to-tail length is 37–41 cm with a wingspan of 70–80 cm. Male birds weigh 190–400 g , while females weigh 260–630. Male bar-tailed Godwits are smaller than females and have shorter bills. The adult bird has blue-grey legs. The neck, breast, and belly are unbroken brick red in breeding plumage, and dark brown above. Females breeding plumage is much duller than males, with chestnut to the cinnamon belly. Non-breeding birds seen in the Southern Hemisphere are plain grey-brown with darker feather centers, giving them a striped look, and are whitish underneath. Juveniles are similar to non-breeding adults but more buff overall with streaked plumages on flanks and breasts. The main source of food is bristle worm, (up to 70%), supplemented by small bivalve mollusks and crustaceans, which they generally swallow whole. Breeding takes place each year on shores and tundra in Scandinavia, Siberia, and Alaska. The nest is a shallow cup in moss sometimes lined with vegetation. Clutch size is from 2 to 5, averaging four. Both sexes share incubation of the eggs for 20 to 21 days, the female during the day, and the male at night. This species has an extremely large range and consists of several subpopulations using different Flyways. Five subspecies have been recorded. Of these, L. l. lapponica makes the shortest migration, some only as far as the North Sea. Bar-Tailed Godwit (L. l. taymyrensis) nesting in Alaska and Siberia reaches the western coasts of India. L. l. baueri nesting in Alaska travel all the way to Australia and New Zealand. In the IUCN Global Red list, the bird is included as ‘Near threatened’.