Here is a nice piece on an NPR blog called “The Toughest Little Bird You’ve Never Heard Of” though I am willing to bet that most readers of this blog have heard of Bar-tailed Godwits.
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.
They might be relatively unknown elsewhere, but in New Zealand they have an enthusiastic following. The bells of the cathedral in The Square in Christchurch used to ring out to announce their arrival in spring, but sadly, the earthquake will have put paid to that (the cathedral was largely destroyed in the second, more devastating quake. They won’t be forgotten, though.
For me personally, these birds have special significance because one of my good friends is completing his doctorate on them. You might recall the post I wrote a few years back about his work.