Bar-tailed Godwit

The Bar-tailed Godwit is a large shorebird with a long, slightly upturned, bicolored bill. Breeding males are strikingly colored, with rich brick-orange or chestnut underparts and mottled brown-and-buff upperparts; females are larger and duller, with less extensive orange coloring. Non-breeding birds of both sexes are plain grayish-brown above and pale below.

As its name suggests, the tail is finely barred rather than solidly dark, a useful distinction from other godwit species.

The species holds the record for the longest known nonstop flight of any bird, with satellite-tracked individuals of the Alaska-breeding subspecies flying more than 11,000 kilometers nonstop across the Pacific to New Zealand and eastern Australia without landing.

Key field marks

• Long, slightly upturned bicolored bill
• Finely barred tail (rather than solid dark or black)
• Breeding male: rich chestnut-orange underparts; female duller and paler
• No obvious white wing stripe in flight, unlike Black-tailed Godwit

Similar species

• Black-tailed Godwit shows a bold white wing stripe and solid black tail band, unlike the barred tail of Bar-tailed Godwit.
• Marbled Godwit is warmer cinnamon-buff overall with cinnamon underwings.
• Hudsonian Godwit shows a dark tail with a white base and black underwings.

Bar-tailed Godwits breed on Arctic and subarctic tundra across northern Scandinavia, Russia, and Alaska. Outside the breeding season they winter on coastal mudflats and estuaries across a huge range spanning western Europe, Africa, the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia, and Australasia (including New Zealand), depending on the breeding population.

Different subspecies follow distinct migration routes, with the Alaska-breeding population undertaking the longest known nonstop overwater flights of any bird species on its journey to New Zealand and eastern Australia.

Voice

A sharp, kew-like call and a variety of chattering notes given in flight and during display on the breeding grounds.

Feeding

Probes soft mud and sand for marine worms, mollusks, and crustaceans, often feeding in large flocks alongside other shorebirds on coastal mudflats.

Nesting

Nests on the ground in a shallow scrape amid tundra vegetation. Both sexes share incubation duties, and adults perform aerial and ground displays with calling to defend the nesting territory.