A STOCKTON bird has given sitting ducks a run for their money after it was spotted more than 8000km away in the mudflats of Japan.
Considered 'Olympic champions' of long-distance migratory flights, the Bar-tailed Godwit made the epic journey from the Hunter's coast to the Higashiyoka-higata mudflats in Japan - coming in for landing on April 18.
It's the first time in decades that a shorebird tagged in the Hunter has been spotted overseas, in what University of Newcastle (UON) shorebird researcher Dr Andrea Griffin calls an incredible stroke of luck.
"This is the first bird tagged in the Hunter with an international sighting," she said.
"It doesn't always happen, many birds are banded and never seen again - but we do get important ecological data from the birds that are re-sighted.
"It takes a bit of luck, the bird has to be banded, fly, survive the journey and have someone looking at the other end."
Godwits can fly from Alaska to Tasmania non-stop in just 11 days and it's estimated that in their lifetime they will fly a distance equivalent to the moon and back.
The re-sighting was reported on a Facebook page thanks to a dedicated birder who spotted it on the other end.
It's likely the Godwit was stopping in Japan to refuel before it continues north to its breeding ground, which could be in Alaska.
It's expected to return to the Hunter in October or November.
The bird was tagged in Stockton in December, 2022 and was last seen locally in mid-March.
As part of the tagging program, Dr Griffin works with her research team and the Hunter Bird Observers Club to band shorebirds in the Hunter for the first time since the early 2000s.
Dr Griffin said the international sighting of the bird highlights the need for policy-makers to consider the location of the proposed offshore wind farm off the Hunter coast and the possible threat it could pose to their flight paths.
"We need to pay particular attention to wind farm proposals, these birds fly through these air spaces and we need to make sure they aren't injured travelling through a wall of wind turbines," she said.
"There are animals out there in these spaces, and underwater, that will have to cope with these new hurdles in their flight paths and this would add another one."
The Hunter Estuary is the most important site for threatened shorebirds in the state, providing a vital habitat for native birds who breed in the far northern hemisphere to rest between October and March each year.
Following the same flight path as the Godwit, Dr Griffin will land in Japan this month to celebrate the Kushiro-Port Stephens sistership, which promotes the conservation and wise use of wetlands.
She hopes to explore opportunities for student exchanges between Hokkaido University and UON.
