Exciting recovery of a VWSG bar-tailed godwit in Alaska

The Victorian Wader Study Group has had an exciting recovery. A Bar-tailed Godwit banded off Manns Breach, Corner Inlet on the 31st of January 2018 has been seen at Teshekpuk Lake Special Area, Arctic Alaska, USA on the 8th of June 2023. It was banded in its first year and has moved 12,167 kilometres from its original banding location. We know that Bar-tailed Godwit travel to Alaska to their breeding ground, however it is not often we have a recovery.

This bird has also been previously sighted in New Zealand at Ruakaka, Northland on 20/09/2020 and then at Snells Beach just north of Auckland on 14/09/2021.

We would like to thank Kristi Carr, who is an Avian Ecologist at Point Blue Conservation Science in Alaska, who was conducting an Arctic PRISM survey when the godwit was sighted. It was seen with its mate in a known nesting location. Kristi has kindly shared some amzing photos with us.