Can nations save the shorebird that flies 30,000 km a year?

Can nations unite to protect the endangered Hudsonian godwit and address the challenges of climate change and habitat loss?

Chasing an endless summer, one shorebird species undertakes a gruelling annual journey from the Arctic to the tip of South America and back -- a feat increasingly fraught with peril.

The Hudsonian godwit (Limosa haemastica) is one of the world's most remarkable travellers, but its population has plunged 95% in four decades due to a complex mix of environmental changes across multiple countries.

It is one of 42 species proposed for international protection at a meeting of parties to the UN Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS) that starts in Brazil on March 23.

Iconic creatures like the snowy owl -- of Harry Potter fame -- striped hyena and hammerhead shark are also on the list deemed in danger of extinction and needing conservation by the countries they pass through.

Migratory birds are facing "rapid and dramatic declines," said Nathan Senner, an ecologist and ornithology professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst who has studied the Hudsonian godwit for 20 years.

Scientists are still unravelling the mysteries of the shorebird, which can fly up to 11,000 km in one stretch without stopping to eat, drink or sleep.