The Toughest Little Bird You've Never Heard Of

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They're nothing to look at. They're not colorful. They seem so ordinary, in mottled brown, black and gray. But you'd be so wrong. Bar-tailed Godwits are special. They are the only birds known to fly more than 7,000 miles nonstop. That means no food breaks, no water breaks, no sleep breaks, no pausing, just pushing through cyclones, storms, headwinds, flappity flap, flap for days and nights.

In September and October the Bar-tailed Godwits leave Alaska, head straight for the ocean. Though they are land birds, and cannot fish or rest on the sea, they will cross most of the Pacific Ocean, and fly all the way to New Zealand. Many of them are young, and have never done this before. No other bird can do what they do, and they're doing it right now.