Flight of the Godwit

Soar across 46 North American territories to uncover the secrets of 7 magnificent shorebirds, the world’s greatest nonstop travelers

An immersive travelogue that belongs on every birder's bookshelf, with 30 gorgeous black-and-white illustrations and a birdwatching species checklist

Flying more than 8,000 miles from Alaska to eastern Australia without stopping to eat or rest, the Bar-tailed Godwit holds the record for the longest nonstop migration of any land bird in the world. Flight of the Godwit invites readers on ornithologist Bruce M. Beehler's awe-inspiring journey in search of North America's largest and farthest-flying shorebirds. Driving 35,000 miles between 2019 to 2023, Beehler sought birds he dubs the "Magnificent Seven": 

• Hudsonian Godwit
• Bar-tailed Godwit
• Marbled Godwit
• Whimbrel
• Long-billed Curlew
• Bristle-thighed Curlew
• Upland Sandpiper

Beehler interweaves colorful fieldwork stories and rich details on local culture with the natural history and biology of shorebirds—including evolution, the physics of migration, orientation, homing, foraging, diet, nesting, parental care, wintering, staging, elusive "super-migrators," and the importance of conservation efforts.

With authoritative prose and 30 beautiful black-and-white illustrations from artist Alan T. Messer, the book journeys through 37 states and 9 Canadian provinces from Texas to Alaska to Canada's High Arctic. Flight of the Godwit is a captivating adventure and a tribute to remarkable birds and birding itself.

BRUCE M. BEEHLER is an ornithologist, naturalist, conservationist, lecturer, and author of nature books including North on the Wing: Travels with the Songbird Migration of Spring, Birds of North America: A Photographic Atlas, and New Guinea: Nature and Culture of Earth's Grandest Island. He is a research associate in the division of birds at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.