Some of the birds that spend the Austral (southern) summer in Australia are trans-equatorial migrants. I'm in awe of their powers of flight and endurance. This video contains information about the record-breaking flight of a 5-month-old bird in 2022.
Recently I spent a few mornings shooting video and stills of two of these long-distance flyers at Lake Cathie. They're a pair; the female is the larger in body and bill length. Scientists believe that the males and females of the species access invertebrates at different depths, due to their different bill lengths.
While filming the female bird, I was surprised to see that the tip of her beak is flexible and can be turned up (like an avocet's) when she yawns. Fascinating.
This species, the Bar-tailed Godwit, breeds in the northern hemisphere from Scandinavia, through northern Asia, and Alaska. It was first described by the father of Taxonomy, Carl Linnaeus, in 1758.
Its scientific name-Limosa lapponica-contains two pieces of information about it : 'limosa' = muddy - 'lapponica' = Lapland.
The Bar-tailed Godwit feeds on estuarine and inland mudflats, hence 'limosa'. The type specimen, described by Linnaeus, was presumably collected in Lapland.
Like most migratory waders, the Bar-tailed Godwit is in trouble with population decline, due to habitat loss and degradation along its flyways. It's listed as 'near threatened' in Australia.
EQUIPMENT USED
My video shows footage and stills captured with the MicroFourThirds OM Systems OM-1 and M. Zuiko 150-400mm f4.5 TC1.25X lens. I shot 60fps 4K and 240fps FHD slow-motion footage. All of the stills I captured were shot with ProCapture SH2 50fps C-AF mode. I converted some of the ProCapture RAW file bursts into mini 4K videos using Lightroom & Premiere Pro.
For the low PoV work, I lay on a yoga mat on the sand.