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by tudorconstantin 1683 days ago
At an avg speed of 34.9 mph, or 54.2 km/h. Impressive!
2 comments

Laden or unladen?
Gonna have to lean towards laden as the bird was carrying a tracker.
Weighing 5 grams.
That beats a coconut by a factor of 200.
I don’t see how this is relevant considering the bird is neither European or African and didn’t stop in either continent during its migration.
Sorry this isn’t the argument department.
Yes it is.
This is not a argument, this is just contradiction.
Well, that was faster than my last shipment.

Next time I'll send through a pigeon.

Wait a second, how sure are we that the bird was not chillin on cargo ship?
Unless it was an aircraft carrier, unlikely.

The bird's average speed is 33 mph (29 knots). Cargo vessels tend to cruise at about 18-25 knots, and many move more slowly.

There's little direct traffic between Alaska and Australia. Shipping lines are visible through their emissions trails, as in this Nullschool link showing NO2 concentrations, from May of this year. The long lines are shipping lanes. You'll note these from Panama to New Zealand, tracking along the Western US coast and Alaska along the Great Circle route to Japan and China, and past Papua New Guinea, among other notable routes:

https://earth.nullschool.net/#2021/05/01/1300Z/chem/surface/...

The data recorders would also likely note any marked variations in travel speed or direction. Again, ships tend not to cover the routes flown by Godwits.