Bar-tailed Godwits flying over mudflats near Cape Avinof, Alaska

Bar-tailed Godwits - photo taken on mudflats near Cape Avinof, Alaska. USGS and USFWS recently found ​that almost the entire population of ​Alaska-breeding bar-tailed godwits feed along sand bars near the mouth of the Kuskokwim River in autumn.  ​These godwits spend the nonbreeding season primarily in eastern Australia and New Zealand after non-stop migrations across the Pacific Ocean. Long-term population declines spurred recent surveys in Alaska and elsewhere.  The new autumn survey information from the Kuskokwim River are in agreement with counts at nonbreeding sites, demonstrating how aerial surveys from Alaska can provide useful insights into counts conducted elsewhere in the range of this bird.  Read more at: https://doi.org/10.18194/ws.00251