godwits

Bar-tailed godwits can do a crossing of the Pacific Ocean - Alaska to New Zealand - 10000km in 8 days non-stop.

Your calculation is interesting, but I beg you to go outside and look at how Godwits actually fly.

Bar-tailed Godwits store fat until it makes up about one half their weight.

If you ever seen Godwits in the wild, you will know why, it's a flapping only bird, they have no other mode of flight.

In NZ, we make a bit of a celebration of the godwits arriving and leaving.

Also I wonder what % of godwits do actually fail along the way.

That said, as if it wasn't impressive enough that Godwits can fly over 8000 miles non-stop, it's even more amazing that they can do it while burdened with a tracking device!

I'm guessing it's being called extraordinary, because the godwits are flapping continually rather than gliding to take a break, from article: Unlike albatross or other long-flying seabirds, godwits are active flyers, not gliders—their wings are moving the whole time.

What this calculation shows that godwits must rely on favorable winds and updrafts (which benefit any flying object, including birds, since motion is relative); if this is not the case, they just not going to reach claimed distances given their weight and how much fat they are carrying.

"Other birds do stay aloft for long periods using a technique called “dynamic soaring,” while godwits power themselves by continuous flapping, which takes far more energy."

"Unlike albatross or other long-flying seabirds, godwits are active flyers, not gliders—their wings are moving the whole time." The article seems to indicate that they are, in fact, flapping their wings the whole time.

Even more incredible since the article points out that "Unlike albatross or other long-flying seabirds, godwits are active flyers, not gliders—their wings are moving the whole time." I wonder if they can use the active-flying equivalent of regenerative braking in favorable wind conditions to actually generate energy while flapping their wings.

Godwits fly in a straight line using rapid powerful nonstop flaps.

Again, ships tend not to cover the routes flown by Godwits.

Godwits are among the fastest-flying birds in a straight line, and they have never been observed to engage in any other mode of flight, nor can they.