Bar-tailed godwits undertake the longest non-stop migration of any bird, raising significant welfare questions about physiological stress during these extraordinary journeys.
Bar-tailed godwit migration represents the outer limits of vertebrate physiological endurance. While adapted to this remarkable feat, welfare depends entirely on refueling habitats being available and productive. Loss of key staging sites in the Yellow Sea (East Asian Flyway) is catastrophic for subspecies using that route. UK wintering godwits benefit from protected estuarine habitats, but disturbance during critical pre-migration fattening periods is a welfare concern.