In February 2007, in New Zealand, 16 Bar-tailed Godwits were implanted with satellite transmitters (PTTs) to gather data on their northward migration. This study went better than expected with the batteries lasting, not only until the birds reached their breeding grounds in Alaska, but all through the southward migration. This wonderful result proved that the Alaskan breeding Bar-tailed Godwit undertakes the longest single non-stop migration in the avian world. This was best illustrated by the now famous 'E7' as she covered a 29,000 km round trip from the Miranda Shorebird Centre on the North Island of New Zealand to staging sites in the Yellow Sea and on to breeding areas in western Alaska before the epic journey back across the Pacific Ocean. Following on from the success of this project the Global Flyway Network has stepped in to do the same with godwits of the race menzbieri, which spend their non-breeding season in NW Australia. A team of researchers gathered at the Broome Bird Observatory (BBO) to undertake the work of fitting the birds with PTTs and leg flags in February 2008. They can be identified by the thin aerial protruding from their tail feathers and large black leg flags with a single white letter and digit (A9). You can follow the migrations of the Roebuck Bay Bar-tailed Godwits by visiting the USGS Migration page.